Thailand, April 1 (CNA) A Taiwanese woman trapped in a collapsed hotel in Myanmar following Friday’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake is believed to be dead, a Taiwanese businessman based in the Southeast Asian country told CNA Tuesday.
Myanmar Taiwan Business Association Secretary-General Lo Chen-hua (羅振華) said a rescue team with search and rescue dogs and life detectors found no signs of life in the collapsed Great Wall Hotel Mandalay on Monday afternoon.
This led to the belief that one of the people trapped in the hotel, a Taiwanese citizen identified as the wife of a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林), is dead, according to Lo.
According to Lo, the Lins arrived in Mandalay a few days ago as tourists and were staying at the Great Wall Hotel during their visit.
Lin was more fortunate when the earthquake struck at 12:50 p.m. on Friday because he was standing near the hotel’s main entrance and was able to escape, suffering only minor injuries to his arms and head during the process, Lo said.
Lin’s wife, however, was trapped with a number of hotel staffers on the hotel’s ground floor after the building partially collapsed in the wake of the strong quake, Lo said.
For a day or two Lin was able to communicate with his wife via one of the trapped staffer’s walkie talkie, Lo said.
Lin told CNA that the rescuers are now trying to locate the bodies of deceased. If they are able to find the Taiwanese, her body will be moved to a nearby overseas Taiwanese convention center in Mandalay.
Her body will cremated before returning to Taiwan with her husband, he said.
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese diplomat based in Yangon has finally arrived at Mandalay on Monday night and visited the collapsed hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) told CNA in Taipei.
Traffic to Mandalay, about 620 kilometers north of Yangon, was obstructed due to damaged roads after the strong earthquake, according to MOFA.
Upon arrival, the diplomat was told that the trapped national had no vital signs, MOFA said in a statement.
The diplomat expressed the government’s condolences to Lin. Taiwan’s top envoy to Myanmar, Chou Chung-hsing (周中興), also telephoned Lin and pledged that the government will help him deal with the aftermath of his wife’s death, MOFA said.
