HUALIEN — Taiwanese rescuers continued the terrifying task Thursday of searching for survivors in a dangerously leaning apartment block that was partially toppled by a quake, despite regular aftershocks coursing through the building’s tottering structure.

At least ten people were killed and dozens remained missing after a 6.4 magnitude quake hit the popular eastern tourist city of Hualien late Tuesday.

The powerful tremor left a handful of buildings badly damaged — some of them leaning at precarious angles — as well as roads torn up and hundreds forced to shelter in local schools and a stadium.

The major focus for emergency responders remained the Yun Tsui apartment block where six of the deaths occurred and dozens are still missing.

The lower floors of the 12-storey tower — which also housed a hotel — pancaked, leaving the structure leaning at a fifty-degree angle and sparking fears of an imminent collapse.

Despite those risks rescuers kept going into the building throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning in a desperate search for survivors.

Strong aftershocks continued to strike Thursday sending rescue teams scurrying from the building, only for them to return a little while later and resume their grim task.

Chu Che-min, the Hualien fire department’s rescue team leader at the scene, told AFP they located two more bodies overnight.

“We discovered the body of a Chinese woman at the hotel in Yun Tsui (building) earlier this morning and located another person who’s a hotel staffer,” he said.

A Red Cross worker at the scene estimated that the building had tilted another 5% overnight, adding he had little hope of finding survivors on its lowest floors.

“Floors one to three are all compressed so it’s hard to tell whether there are people,” he told AFP, requesting anonymity.

He said that there was no risk of a gas explosion in the building but the aftershocks and further slippage remained a persistent danger.

In a updated toll, the national fire agency said ten people had now been confirmed killed in the quake including three Chinese mainland nationals.

At least 66 people remain unaccounted for across the city, the national fire agency said. In the apartment block, 37 people are missing from flats alongside 10 hotel guests. More than 250 people were injured in the tremor, the strongest to hit Hualien in decades. — AFP

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