TAIWAN, April 3: At least seven people were killed and more than 700 injured in a powerful earthquake in Taiwan today that damaged dozens of buildings and prompted tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines before being lifted.
Officials said the quake was the strongest to shake the island in decades, and warned of more tremors in the days ahead.
“The earthquake is close to land and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands,” said Wu Chien-fu, director of Taipei’s Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center.
Strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe for the earthquake-prone island, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
Wu said the quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.
Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake hit just before 8:00 am local time (0000 GMT), with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicentre 18 kilometres south of Taiwan’s Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometres.
Three people among a group of seven on an early-morning hike through the hills that surround the city were crushed to death by boulders loosened by the earthquake according to officials.
Separately, a truck driver died when his vehicle was hit by a landslide as it approached a tunnel in the area.
The National Fire Agency said all the deaths occurred in Hualien county, and that so far 736 people had been injured in the quake, without specifying how seriously. -TVS
Rooftop swimming pool during the Taiwan earthquake pic.twitter.com/3J1QKYULwT
— StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻 (@StrictlyChristo) April 3, 2024
