Taiwan was shocked by a massive earthquake with a magnitude of more than 7 around 8 a.m. (2 a.m. Belgian time). At least nine people were killed and 900 others were injured. Fifty people are also missing who were traveling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park at the time of the earthquake.
One person on a hiking trail is “presumed dead” after being crushed by a rock in the region of Hualien, the mountainous, sparsely populated eastern province where the quake’s epicenter was located.
Some 77 people were trapped in tunnels and collapsed buildings, Taiwanese authorities said. Sixty people were unable to get out of a tunnel north of the city of Hualien. Two Germans were trapped in another tunnel.
At least 26 buildings have collapsed, half of them in Hualien. According to television channel TVBS, the quake also caused landslides. High-speed train traffic is partially interrupted.
Photos show firefighters trying to free people from damaged buildings. Cars and mopeds are said to be buried under the rubble. Hualien is located about 200 kilometers south of the capital Taipei. About 100,000 people live there.
“It felt like the house was going to fall,” Chang Yu-Lin, a 60-year-old hospital worker from Taipei, told Reuters.
At least three people were injured when a warehouse collapsed in the northern city of New Taipei, several media reported. The electricity company Taipower announced that more than 87,000 households in Taiwan are still without power. The country’s two nuclear power plants were not affected by the quake.
It would be the strongest earthquake in Taiwan in 25 years. In 1999, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 killed 2,400 people.
Tsunamialarm
The quake was also felt in Japan, but no damage or casualties were reported there. A tsunami alert was declared for Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. Japan and the Philippines have since lifted the warnings.
Chinese state media said the earthquake was also felt in China’s Fujian province. China offered Taiwan assistance in the rescue efforts on Wednesday morning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office said. It is not yet clear whether Taiwan will accept the aid. Relations between the two countries are tense as China views Taiwan as part of its territory.
