Two more mainland tourists were confirmed dead Sunday in the powerful earthquake in Taiwan's Hualien County, bringing the death toll¹ to 17.

 

台湾花莲县大地震，又有两名大陆游客周日被确认死亡，现在死亡人数已达到17人。
 

 

Braving the danger of aftershocks, rescuers found the bodies in the ruins of a 12-story building after searching for more than 100 hours since the 6.5-magnitude earthquake jolted² Hualien late Tuesday night.

 

The last found two persons are from the same family with the three found on Saturday. The family from Beijing was travelling in Taiwan, and stayed in an inn on the second floor of the Yun Men Tusi Ti building on Tuesday.

 

Rescuers said the search was extremely difficult because the 12-story building has tilted³ after the earthquake, with the first four floors severely⁴ squeezed and distorted.

 

"The first four flours have become something like a multi-layer sandwich, and have caved into the ground. The roofs, floors and walls are squeezed together. And there is very limited space for us to operate inside," said one rescuer surnamed Huang.

 

"Besides, we must be very careful to avoid causing further collapse⁵ of the building by using large machines. So it usually takes two or three hours to drill through one wall," Huang said.

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