Scaffolding left standing after a Taipei demolition collapses, injuring a worker and three passersby

The collapse happened around 10:35 a.m. on Xinshi Street in Beitou District, the Taipei City Fire Department said. A male worker fell from the third level. CNA reported he was seriously hurt but conscious, while the Taipei Times said all four injured were conscious when taken to hospital. The city began tearing down the aging, earthquake-vulnerable market in mid-October after relocating its stallholders to temporary premises.

Mayor Chiang Wan-an said at the scene that the building was already gone but the scaffolding had not been removed after it, as required. Inspectors from the Taipei structural engineers' association found the old structure had been taken down to the first floor, leaving the scaffold's wall ties anchored to nothing, while the scaffold still stood five levels high with its safety netting on, the China Times reported. Strong wind then pushed it over toward the street.

On top of the NT$2.5 million contract penalty, the city fined the contractor of record and the supervising firm NT$90,000 each under the Building Act, CNA reported. Labor inspectors found preliminary breaches of Articles 6, 26 and 27 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which carry fines of NT$50,000 to NT$450,000, and the city plans scaffold inspections at sites across Taipei.

The same day, Taiwan's Ministry of Labor reported 102 construction deaths in the first nine months of 2026, nine more than a year earlier. Falls caused 62% of them, and 74% of the workers killed were employed by subcontractors, the ministry said.