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Taiwanese President-elect Tsai Ing-wen is promising extensive safety checks of old buildings two days after an earthquake killed at least 38 people, according to local media. New questions emerged after stacks of cans were found in the walls of a 17-story building that was the scene of all but two of those deaths.


Those cans are blue cooking oil containers, reports 

; other media outlets call them old paint cans. Structural engineer Tai Yun-fa tells the state-run agency that in structures built before 1999, oil cans were used to fill out pillars and make them look larger. The Golden Dragon apartment building in the city of Tainan was reportedly completed in 1994.


The sight of cans embedded inside concrete used to build a large apartment building that was among the worst-damaged in Tainan set off speculation about shoddy construction practices. Many buildings around it were left standing.

 reports, "The bulk of the complex was left lying on its side after the magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southern Taiwan at 3:57 a.m. [local time] on Saturday, and it has been the site of most of the casualties from the temblor."


A team of prosecutors are now at the site to look for any signs of wrongdoing, the newspaper adds.

Tsai, who will take office in May, visited Tainan on Monday and said her administration will make it a priority to inspect and reinforce any older buildings that need it.

cast a pall on Taiwan's Lunar New Year celebrations

, as NPR's Elise Hu reports.
Dozens of people were still missing — but some survivors were still being pulled from rubble some 60 hours after the quake. Two people who were trapped inside the large apartment building that has been at the heart of rescue operations were brought to safety Monday — an 8-year-old girl and a woman from Vietnam.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Disasters

Dozens of people are still missing -- but some survivors were still being pulled from rubble some 60 hours after the quake. Nearly all of the 38 reported deaths occurred in one building.

Photos of cans inside Taiwan building's pillars help spur call for safety reviews

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