Aftershocks rattle Taiwan quake survivors as anger grows over building collapse

At a primary school turned shelter in Hualien, Taiwan some survivors of a tower block left teetering by Tuesday’s quake were baffled and angry that such a seemingly solid structure had folded with deadly results.

Emergency workers on Thursday were still pulling bodies from the 12-storey Yun Tsui apartment block, which was left tottering at a 50-degree angle when its lower floors pancaked during the magnitude 6.4 quake. At least six of the nine confirmed dead so far perished there.

“It’s unbelievable such a big building toppled,” 66-year-old Chen Chien-hsiang said, as fellow residents huddled under blankets, occasional aftershocks rattling the school and their already frayed nerves.

“We question whether the structural integrity of the building was damaged. Otherwise why else would it fall the way it did?”