Chances Of Finding Survivors Slim: Hualien Mayor

Hualien mayor Fu Kun-chi said on Friday that the chances of finding people alive were now slim even as rescue workers combed the rubble of a hotel in a last-ditch effort to find seven people still missing, including a Hong Kong couple.

"Rescuers will seize the 'golden 72 hours of rescue time' to make an all-out effort for rescue," he added.

National Fire Agency search and rescue team leader Liang Kuo-wei said it had taken 12 hours to break through to the second-floor hotel room where the couple were staying.

They had found their suitcase and "running shoes, sunglasses, and thermos", he said, adding that they had earlier detected "signs of life" but had been unable to locate the couple and were now encountering smells of decay.

A mainland family of five were staying on the second floor.

All were trapped in the hotel on the bottom floors of the Yunmen Tsuiti building, one of several damaged by the magnitude 6.4 temblor that struck on Tuesday.

The lower floors of the 12-storey tower pancaked, leaving the structure leaning at a fifty-degree angle and sparking fears of an imminent collapse. (AFP, AP)