Canadian couple found dead in partially collapsed hotel after Taiwan quake

By The Associated Press

HUALIEN, Taiwan – Taiwanese broadcasters say two Canadians are among those killed in the earthquake that hit the country this week.

They say the bodies of a Canadian couple originally from Hong Kong were found in a partially collapsed hotel on Friday.

The hotel was located on the lower floors of a 12-storey building that was leaning at a 45-degree angle, forcing crews to stabilize it with steel beams.

The building was one of several damaged by the magnitude 6.4 temblor that struck Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hualien county, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism.

The deaths of the Canadian couple, both 49, raises the death toll from the earthquake to 12, including four tourists from China and a 27-year-old Filipino employed as a household helper.

Taiwan’s National Fire Agency has listed 273 people as injured.

Taiwan has frequent earthquakes, most of them minor, but a 1999 quake killed more than 2,300 people and was Taiwan’s worst recent natural disaster.

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