Taiwan struck by magnitude 6.4 earthquake, trapping dozens in rubble
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| Three earthquakes have hit southern Taiwan causing damage to buildings and two fatalities. Photograph: Reuters |
A powerful earthquake has struck Taiwan near the southern city of Tainan, with dozens feared trapped under a collapsed apartment block.
Tainan city government said 221 people had been rescued, 154 had been hospitalised, and two people were in critical condition after the quake.
Emergency officials said a 10-day-old infant, a 55-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man died in the earthquake. Taiwan’s official news agency said the infant and the man were pulled out of a 17-storey Wei Guan residential building and that both were later declared dead.
The agency said 256 people were believed to have been living in 92 households.
The US Geological Survey recorded powerful tremors of 6.4 magnitude early on Saturday morning local time, following initial reports of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.
The earthquake caused a 17-storey apartment building to collapse. Fire brigade rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the wreckage and help survivors to safety. One elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up weaker signs of life among the rubble.
The Taiwanese president, Ma Ying-jeou, speaking to reporters in the capital before leaving for the scene, said authorities were not clear on the extent of the disaster.
“The disaster situation is not very clear yet. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure survivors,” Ma said.
Residents and media outlets in the area took to social media with cellphone video clips of the aftermath, as fire crews tried to rescue people from wrecked buildings amid the sound of screaming and emergency vehicle sirens.
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| Rescue personnel work at a damaged building. Photograph: Pichi Chuang/Reuters |
The China Post newspaper in Taiwan said on its website: “Collapsed buildings reported in Tainan, with rescue workers arriving on scene. The city government there has set up a level one emergency response centre. Onlookers are urged not to block access to emergency crews moving into the area.”
Lin Kuang-cheng, a spokesman for the national fire agency said: “Four buildings have collapsed in Tainan City area. Search and rescue is underway and no casualties have been reported at this moment.”
Residents and reporters also posted pictures of huge buildings listing at precarious angles over the street.
The city of Kaohsiung, further south, was also affected.
The earthquake was a shallow one, occurring close to the land surface, which can be particularly destructive. But there has been no indication so far that it might result in a tsunami, the authorities said.
Taiwanese television reported that there were hundreds of people in one of the buildings that collapsed in Tainan. “I hugged the wall and put my face to the wall,” Tainan resident Pao-feng Wu told Reuters.
The earthquake struck a few minutes before 4am local time in Taiwan and tremors were felt right across the island and as far north as the capital, Taipei, 200 miles away.
In the immediate aftermath of the quake, flooding and power failures had affected the worst hit south-western area and authorities scrambled to reach residents.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A 6.3-magnitude quake which hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides.
A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island in September 1999 and killed about 2,400 people.
