collapsed apartment building in Taina
© Wally Santana/AP Rescuers search for dozens missing in the collapsed apartment building in Tainan on Sunday
At least 23 have died in the quake in Tainan as the city's mayor admitted it would be 'very difficult' to reach 100 still trapped deep under a collapsed building

Rescuers in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan were fighting against the clock on Sunday to save more than 100 people still trapped beneath rubble of an apartment block 24 hours after a strong earthquake shook the island.

A 20-year-old man was pulled alive from of the wreckage on Sunday but the city's mayor admitted that emergency teams face a "very difficult" challenge to rescue dozens of other people who remain trapped.

At least 23 people were killed when the 6.4-magnitude quake struck early on Saturday morning, many of them in a collapsed 16-storey apartment complex which contained almost 100 homes packed with families gathering for the Chinese new year.

"Of the 132 people desperately waiting for rescue, 103 people are buried very deep, there's no way to get to them direct, it's very difficult," said Tainan mayor William Lai on Sunday.


Firefighters, police, soldiers and volunteers were combing through the ruins, some using their hands, and being watched anxiously by dozens of the victims' family members wearing thick jackets, woollen hats and scarves on a cold morning.

"She's not answering my phone calls ... I am trying to hold my emotions and stay strong. I'll do that until I find her," said a woman surnamed Chang, 42, waiting to hear from her 24-year-old daughter who lived on the fifth floor of the complex.

"Nothing matters but to get her out. The lady living across the hallway was rescued yesterday. I know they will find her, but I have also planned for the worst. It's been more than 20 hours now."

Lai told reporters that efforts were focusing on 29 people who are closest to the rescuers, with lighter equipment like drills being used.

"The other 103 are believed to be at the lower floors of the building, and we can't find an accessible route to those areas at the moment."

The lower floors of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon building pancaked on top of each other in the quake and then the whole structure toppled, raising immediate questions about the quality of materials and workmanship used in its construction in the 1990s.

Rescuers in the collapsed building in Tainan
© Wally Santana/APRescuers in the collapsed building in Tainan.
Liu Shih-chung, Tainan city government deputy secretary general, said television footage of its ruins suggested the possibility of structural problems related to poor-quality reinforced steel and cement.

However, city officials have said it is too early to say for certain if poor construction was a factor in the collapse.

The dead taken from the collapsed apartment block on Saturday included a 10-day-old girl who was found in her dead father's arms, media reported.

Authorities said the building had 96 apartments and 256 registered residents, though more people were inside when it collapsed.

Rescuers wearing red and yellow overalls pulled more than 240 survivors from the ruins and inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete as they searched for additional survivors.

Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency centre said.

Many residents of the city were without water on Sunday and had to queue to receive supplies.