Yesterday, April 3 (05:28)
Update: Yesterday, April 3 (22:36)
Nine people died and over 900 were injured as a result of a strong earthquake that hit Taiwan on Wednesday morning local time, firefighters said. Tsunami warnings have been issued in the Philippines and the southwestern islands of Japan.
Building destroyed by the earthquake /AFP /East News
The Taiwanese meteorological service estimated the magnitude of the quake at 7.2, while Japanese seismologists initially reported a magnitude of 7.5, and later increased it to 7.7.
The epicenter of the shock was approximately 25 kilometers southeast of the mountainous Hualien County on the eastern coast of Taiwan. The media showed shots of damaged, leaning buildings in this district.
Building destroyed by the earthquake /AFP /East News
Rescuers help the injured get out of the destroyed buildings /AFP /East News
At least 26 buildings collapsed, more than half of them in the city of Hualien, where about 20 people were trapped under the rubble. The rescue operation is ongoing.
Now authorities are investigating what happened with the security alert because people were supposed to be notified of a possible earthquake, but only some of them received a warning, NPR news correspondent Emily Feng told the BBC from Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. Feng said that Taipei is calm because “people are prepared for such situations.” The correspondent also informed that electricity and internet are available in the capital.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida offered “any kind of assistance that our overseas neighbors need in this moment of crisis,” adding in a post on the X platform that he remembered and was grateful for the help Taiwan provided to Japan when it was hit by the 2011 earthquake.
The disaster caused delays in train traffic, and over 87,000 houses were without electricity. However, the authorities assured that all nuclear power plants in Taiwan are safe, the Kyodo news agency reported.
This is the strongest earthquake in Taiwan in 25 years, since the 1999 earthquake, Wu Chien-fu, director of the Taipei Seismological Center, told reporters, referring to the 7.6-magnitude quake that killed 2,400 people in September 1999.
Building destroyed by the earthquake /AFP /East News
The shock was also felt by residents of Shanghai, as well as the cities of Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Ningde in mainland China’s Fujian province, Chinese state media reported.
Japanese authorities initially issued a tsunami warning on the islands of Okinawa Prefecture, where waves reaching up to three meters high were expected. Later, the weather agency confirmed that small, 30-centimeter waves had reached the islands. All tsunami warnings have been withdrawn.
Source: RMF FM/PAP
