Five Taiwanese citizens strapped under a building at Mexico earthquake confirmed dead

The five Taiwanese citizens trapped in the rubble of a building that collapsed during a strong earthquake in Mexico City was confirmed dead on Friday, Representative to Mexico Carlos Liao said.

On Tuesday, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico, killing at least 250 people and destroying about 44 buildings.

The latest confirmed Taiwanese victim was Huang Hsien-yu, the daughter of King Pei-ju who was confirmed dead earlier.

King and Huang were relatives of Taiwanese businessman Chen Po-wen, who ran a shoe business from an office in the collapsed building.

Huang’s body was recovered from the rubble the day after the tremor hit Mexico, but due to the difficulties in identifying the victims, her death was not immediately confirmed, Liao said.

With the rubble of the affected site cleared, Huang’s family became more anxious about her whereabouts, so they returned to the city’s forensic center with a doctor and staff from Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico, and found and identified Huang’s body at around 10am on Friday, Liao said.

The discovery meant that all five of the Taiwanese who had been trapped in the toppled building are now confirmed dead.

In addition to Huang and King, the other three Taiwanese confirmed dead are Carolina Wang,Lai Ying-hsia and Lin Chia-ching.

Wang and Lai were the employees of Chen. Lin was on a business trip to Mexico City at the time of the disaster and ran a business in Paraguay.

On Thursday, Lin’s family held a funeral in the city, which was attended by Paraguayan ambassador to Mexico Victor Cuevas Nunez,
Lin was also a citizen of Paraguay.

Liao expressed regret about the death of the five Taiwanese nationals.

President Tsai Ing-wen, Premier William Lai and Foreign Minister David Lee  have sent condolences to the families of the deceased Taiwanese, he said.

Liao said that his office will try its best to help them deal with the aftermath of the disaster when they arrive in Mexico City.

The quake hit at 1:13pm on Tuesday, hours after Mexico City held preparation drills on the anniversary of a magnitude 8.0 quake that struck there on Sept. 19, 1985, killing thousands.

The tremor occurred just 12 days after a magnitude 8 earthquake hit the coast of southern Mexico.

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