President Ma Ying-jeou is visiting the families of victims and the people injured in the gas explosions in Kaohsiung.
Around midnight on Friday, a series of powerful explosions shook the southern city of nearly 3 million residents. The explosions were caused by a leak from one of the underground pipelines carrying highly flammable gases or liquids to and from several of the city's petrochemical plants.
As of late Friday, 26 people were confirmed dead as a result of the explosions and subsequent fires. Almost 300 people were injured while two members of the fire department remained unaccounted for.
According to the Presidential Office on Saturday, the search for the missing continued in the early hours of the morning. The body of a male and the broken remains of a suspected firefighter were recovered from the scene of explosions and are waiting to be identified.