At least four people have been confirmed dead and 62 injured after what has been described as Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years struck the country.
The earthquake also caused building collapses, power outages and landslides on the island, and sparking initial tsunami warnings in southern Japan and the Philippines.
According to reports, the quake, given a magnitude of 7.7 by Japan’s meteorological agency, struck close to the popular tourist city of Hualien, on Taiwan’s eastern coast, damaging buildings and trapping people amid aftershocks following the quake, which started at 7.58am.
There were videos on social media showing children being rescued from collapsed residential buildings. One five-storey building in Hualien appeared heavily damaged, its first floor collapsed and the bulk of the building leaning at a 45-degree angle.
Taiwan’s Centre for Science and Technology (CST) was quoted as saying that people and vehicles were trapped in the Dachingshui tunnel. Train lines were also damaged, and schools and workplaces were closed across large areas of the city.
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Witnesses in Hualien described driving while rocks dislodged from nearby mountains fell down around them, while others rushed outside after feeling the strength of the tremors. Further north, part of the headland of Guishan Island, a tourist attraction also known as Turtle Island because of its shape, slid into the sea. In the capital, Taipei, several people were rescued from a partially collapsed warehouse, and tiles fell from buildings.
Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency gave the magnitude of Wednesday’s quake as 7.2, making it Taiwan’s strongest since 1999, when a 7.6-magnitude quake 93 miles (150 km) south of Taipei killed 2,400 and injured 10,000.
Hualien’s last big quake was in 2022, when a 6.9-magnitude tremblor toppled buildings and derailed a train, killing one person and cutting off power for thousands of residents.
According to Bloomberg News, Wednesday’s quake caused TSMC, Taiwan’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, that is responsible for the production of most of the world’s advanced semiconductors, to evacuate its production lines.
Story was adapted from abc.
