Another body found under Taiwan quake debris

TAIPEI -- Five days after the search officially ended, the body of a 32-year-old woman was found Thursday, 2.6 meters under the ground of a building that collapsed in an earthquake 12 days ago in Tainan, Taiwan.

Lin Han-fei was not a resident of the 16-storey Weiguan Jinlong building, but was often seen sitting under the building's southeastern arcade and even staying overnight, Tainan Mayor William Lai said at a press conference.

The 6.7-magnitude quake hit the city of Kaohsiung at a depth of 15 km at 3:57 am on Feb. 6, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. Tainan bore the brunt of the quake.

Rescue work lasted 180 hours until the last missing resident of the building was found Saturday afternoon, when Lai declared that the search for the missing had "come to an end."

"In the previous search, rescuers did not find Lin after digging through to the asphalt road surface," Lai told the press.

Afterwards, Lin's family members agreed to report Lin to the police as a "missing person," as they were not sure where Lin was staying when the quake struck.

On Thursday, police said they had found evidence that Lin might have been under the collapsed building when the quake hit after looking through video from cameras nearby and interviewing people familiar with Lin.

A new search round started at about 5 p.m., and her body was found 40 minutes later, 2.6 meters under the location where Lin used to stay, Lai said.

A video clip showed Lin buying food and beverages from a shop at about 5 pm on Feb 5, then going to eat at a table outside and leaving at about 7 pm.

The discovery brought the death toll from the quake to 117, 115 of whom were found at the Weiguan Jinlong building.