At least nine people have died and 821 have been injured following a series of powerful earthquakes in Taiwan. The strongest was a magnitude 7.4 on the Ritcher scale, according to the Japanese meteorological agency, causing numerous buildings to collapse.
Tsunami warning in Japan and Russia following 7.5 magnitude earthquake
The tremors that shook the island on Wednesday morning have caused more than a thousand people to be trapped in the mountains. Several buildings have also collapsed, while other infrastructures have also been damaged.
In the Taroko National Park, nearly 1,000 people are also reported to be trapped in the mountains. According to local authorities’ estimates, at least 654 people, including tourists and employees, were in Taroko at the time of the earthquake, but several hundred later entered the park, raising the number of stranded people to close to 1,000.
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— B Ram Saran (@B_Ram_Saran) April 3, 2024
The earthquake triggered the issuance of a tsunami warning, also in the islands of Japan and the Philippines, but two and a half hours after the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reconsidered the situation and lifted the threat.
The tremor caused the collapse of several sections of the Suhua Highway, which runs along Taiwan’s northern coast, and rockfall in two tunnels. Roads within Taroko Park are cut off, according to CNA, which has left several people and vehicles trapped, with the exact number affected still being tallied. Overall, the number of disaster-related incidents has totaled 1,103, with 690 cases classified as “other types of events,” followed by 189 civil infrastructure incidents and 125 building damage.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 7:58 a.m. Wednesday (1:58 a.m. Spanish peninsular time), was located in the sea, 25 kilometers southeast of Hualien County (east), with a depth of 15.5 kilometers. The first earthquake was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, the largest of 6.5 degrees, all occurred in Hualien County and its surroundings, in the east, and have been felt throughout the island, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and confirmed by the mayor of Taipei, Chiang Wanan, who has declared level two of the disaster response center in the city.
“The city’s disaster response center has been upgraded to level two, public works, industrial and fire stations have deployed personnel, and emergency response teams have been established within each unit, and immediately began investigation, reporting and relief work,” the mayor said.
He also asked citizens to be cautious and to be alert to possible new aftershocks, according to a statement posted on his Facebook account.
This earthquake is the strongest earthquake Taiwan has experienced in 25 years. In September 1999, a 7.3 earthquake left more than 2,400 dead and 11,000 injured. The most notable event on Wednesday was the partial collapse of a building in Hualien County, the closest county to the epicenter.
Rooftop swimming pool during the Taiwan earthquake pic.twitter.com/3J1QKYULwT
— StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻 (@StrictlyChristo) April 3, 2024
The world’s largest semiconductor producer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), has evacuated part of the employees of its facilities. The company has said that the evacuation of personnel from the factories was carried out “following the company’s internal procedures” and that safety systems “are working properly,” according to the official CNA agency.
Residents in Taipei have posted on the social network X that the movement was strongly felt in the Taiwanese capital, where buildings shook continuously for more than a minute and stones were dislodged from numerous buildings.
The subway of the cities of Taipei, Taichung, in the north, and Kaohsiung, in the south, suspended its operations for almost an hour because of the earthquake, according to the official Taiwanese agency CNA.
Hundreds killed and many injured in 6.2-magnitude earthquake in northwest China
According to CNA, the tremor was felt with an intensity of more than 5 degrees in the counties of Yilan in the east of the country and Miaoli in the north, and with an intensity of 5 in the cities of Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu County, also in the north, in addition to the city of Taichung and the counties of Changhua and Nantou, in the east of the island.
-Thailand News (TN)
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