Young Couple Found Buried Alive in Each Other's Arms After Earthquake Destroyed Their Building

This is the tragic and heart-rending story of a two students in love with each other who died in each other's arms after an earthquake buried them alive.

The young couple were found buried under the debris in each other's arms

A young couple have been found buried alive in the rubble of an apartment building in southwest Taiwan, embracing each other.

The People's Daily Online reports that rescuers made the discovery during the search for survivors in Tainan after the city was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.

According to reports, the boyfriend named Cai Mengjia was found first, apparently shielding his girlfriend from falling rubble, with the pair still holding hands.

Cai, an electronics student and his girlfriend Huang Ruoxin both attended Kun Shan University. The pair were both just 21 years old.

Huang was a student of fashion at the university.

Rescuers discover the body of a young Taiwanese couple who died after an earthquake hit Taiwan

According to local media, rescue teams said the pair were tightly embracing making it difficult to release them from the remains of the building. The girl's head was apparently nestled in Cai's chest as if he was protecting her from falling rubble.

They were found on the 15th floor of the Wei-Kuan complex at around 8am yesterday. Recovery teams were able to identify the pair due to Cai 's identity cards in his pocket.

Rescue workers carry away the bodies of the couple from the site of the collapsed apartment block

Because of the time that had passed since the disaster, the two were hard to identify however Cai Mengjia had papers in his pocket revealing his name and where he was a student.

Parents of both Cai and Huang were allowed to see their recovered bodies at the Tainan Funeral Home. Both families were devastated by the news and hope for a DNA test to confirm the identifies of the two bodies.

Taiwan's Ministry of Education say that at least 17 of the dead are students and on Monday, the flag will be flown at half mast. 53 people are confirmed dead with 83 still missing.