Three Indicted Over Collapsed Taiwan Building

A Taiwanese developer was indicted on Friday over the partial collapse of a building that killed 14 people during an earthquake in February, prosecutors said.

The building's architect and a civil engineer were also charged with causing death and injury by professional negligence, punishable by a maximum five-year jail term.

The lower floors of the 12-storey Yun Tsui residential building – which also housed a restaurant and hotel – pancaked when a 6.4-magnitude quake struck the tourist hot spot of Hualien on February 6.

A total of 17 people died across the eastern coastal town, 14 of them in the Yun Tsui building. A Hong Kong couple, who held Canadian passports, were among those who died at the apartment.

Developer Liu Ying-lin was unlicensed and did not have the necessary engineering qualifications but oversaw the building's construction instead of contracting a professional firm, said Hualien District Prosecutors Office.

"Yun Tsui building collapsed within eight seconds of the earthquake... due to serious flaws in design, supervision and construction," said Wang Yi-jen, a spokesman for the office.

The flaws included inadequate pillars and reinforcing steel that significantly weakened the building's seismic capacity, he added.

The Hualien quake came exactly two years to the day after a similar sized tremor struck the western city of Tainan, killing 117 people – most in a single apartment block which tumbled.

Five people were later found guilty over the disaster, including the developer and two architects, for building an inadequate structure. (AFP)