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Taiwan scaffolding collapse kills three people
Three people have been killed and two have been injured after a high-rise building construction scaffolding collapsed in Taiwan.
A ministry of transportation official said some of the scaffolding collapsed in the Taoyuan area, east of Taipei, due to strong winds.
The ministry confirmed on its official social media account that three deaths and two injuries had been reported from the collapse on Wednesday night.
Police are looking into what caused the accident, China Daily reported.
Taiwanese media said the construction scaffolding of the building was about nine metres high.
Stacy Hsu, a resident of nearby Tachung Road, said the building had just been finished.
“The scaffolding had just been taken down after it was put up just days ago,” she said.
The high-rise was temporarily closed after the accident, and the property investment firm behind it asked residents to refrain from a party on Thursday night.
The Taiwan Strait News newspaper said the facade of the residential apartment building was completely covered with scaffolding.
Most of the scaffolding had come down by 10pm, but still about 100 metres of scaffolding was seen lying on the ground in the middle of the street in the centre of the area, the newspaper said.
Taiwan is more vulnerable to weather-related construction disasters than any other place in the world. Three high-rise buildings collapsed and 11 people were killed in two separate accidents in June last year.
An ongoing building and development scandal in which corruption was exposed has led to a few early elections and the resignation of a government minister.