Sister and brother use bodies to shield children
Dead father pulled from rubble still clinging to four-year-old daughter
Taiwan yesterday started clearing rubble from a southern town where a woman and her brother died shielding their young children with their own bodies against falling debris.
Housewife Fang Shu-chuan, 41, died early yesterday morning on her way to hospital, 41/2 hours after a powerful quake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Pingtung in southern Taiwan on Tuesday night, causing the collapse of her four-storey house.
Her younger brother died shielding his daughter in his arms.
Rescuers first found Chen Yu-hsien, the eldest of the seven-year-old twins, who miraculously survived with slight injuries after being buried in the rubble for more than two hours.
The boy's narrow escape raised hopes that his mother and brother, Chen Yu-jen, had survived, rescuers said.
But, after digging for more than two hours, they found Fang underneath a large cement block.
'Minutes later we heard a tiny voice, and yes, it was from the little boy,' said one of the rescuers.
The boy had a green blanket wrapped around him and had been saved by his mother's sacrifice.
The boys' parents were divorced, but according to their father they were planning to remarry.
Chen Cheng-hsi, was at first overjoyed to find that one of his sons escaped almost unharmed. But then he learned how his ex-wife died and that his other son might have to have his leg amputated after it was crushed by debris.
'My boy asked me to give him his leg back,' he wept.
Fang's brother used his body to protect his daughter during the killer earthquake, described by seismologists as the strongest earthquake of the century in the Pingtung region. Fang Cheng-mao, 38, was dead when rescuers pulled him from the debris, his arms still around his four-year-old daughter, who survived the impact, police said.
His wife, Liu Mei-ling, said she kept shouting her husband's name after they were buried, but heard nothing from him.
Eleven members of the Fang family lived in the building, the first floor of which was used as a furniture shop.
The elderly parents along with one of their grandchildren escaped unharmed, while their eldest daughter, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren were injured after being pulled from the rubble.
The earthquake, which came on the second anniversary of the devastating tsunami that took more than 200,000 lives in South Asia, injured at least 42 people.
A tsunami warning for southern Taiwan and the Philippines was issued but later withdrawn by officials.
At least three houses collapsed in Taiwan, while several fires, including a major one that destroyed a hypermarket, were reported.
More than 3,000 families were left without electricity and telephone services.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang, formerly head of the Pingtung county government, yesterday headed south to visit the Fang family and other injured people being treated at a local hospital.
