Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/21/2020
By: Liu Chien-pang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 21 (CNA) A worker has been found dead after he was excavated from fallen steel bars and concrete blocks late Saturday at a construction site in Taipei where the 19-story Core Pacific City shopping center was being torn down to make way for an office complex.

At around 11 p.m. the body of the worker was dug out, eight hours after the unexpected cave-in occurred on the eighth floor of the building during demolition work, said Wang Cheng-hsiung (王證雄), who heads a fire-fighting squad at the city's Fire Department.

He said the rescue mission began soon after the collapse but their efforts were challenged by big chunks of reinforced concrete.

Given that the worker was found in a crashed small excavator alongside another excavator and a small pick-up van, they suspected that the worker was operating the machine on the ground floor when the cave-in occurred at around 3 p.m., Wang said.

An investigation by police and prosecutors is underway.    [FULL  STORY]