A dozen people have now been confirmed dead after Tuesday's massive earthquake in Taiwan. While the critical 72-hour golden window to find survivors has passed, search and rescue operations have been extended for a further 24 hours. Tony Cheng has more on the race to find survivors.

Inside Hualien's quake, a short, but violent tremor powerful enough to throw furniture across the room. For these people a lucky escape, but many others are still picking up the pieces. On Thursday evening, no let up in the search at the Yun Tsui building. Rescue workers still pushing their way into the rubble. From the apartments above, the body of the final victim, Melody, Filippino help. But the focus was now on the hostel that had been crushed. 7 People remained buried inside. And those efforts rewarded overnight.

LIANG GUO WEI CAPTAIN, TAIWAN FIREFIGHTING AGENCY "We found signs of life this morning, between 12 and 12:30, and now we have been drilling downwards from the 3rd floor."

Access has been a huge problem. This may look like the interior of a normal apartment, but everything is tilted at a 45 degree angle. The floor, a slippery hazard the workers have to climb. And all the time the threat of aftershocks that could collapse this structure at any stage.

TONY CHENG HUALIEN COUNTY "Since the authorities released the news that they heard sounds of life inside the building, they've had these two ambulances on standby, but we're getting very close to the end of the 72 hour window, and that makes survivability in this kind of accident very unlikely."

Sadly the miracle was not to be. The bodies of Peter and Frieda So found on Friday afternoon in a final embrace. But the search goes on, extended for another 24 hours. A family of five from Beijing, three generations on vacation, still unaccounted for. Elsewhere in Hualien, efforts shifting from rescue to recovery.

FU KUN-CHI HUALIEN COUNTY COMMISSIONER "We must demolish these buildings right now. What we don't want, is if there were to be another earthquake, it would cause irreversible damage to the buildings around them. So this is an extremely dangerous building which must be demolished now."

The Marshall hotel, cleared two days ago, but now consigned for demolition. Heavy machines smashing up the walls of this building that had stood for forty years. Tony Cheng, CGTN, Hualien, Taiwan.