Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in the last 25 years killed 9 people on Wednesday and reportedly injured more than 900, while around 50 people were missing who were travelling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park.
At about 8 a.m.(0000 GMT) the magnitude of 7.2 quake struck the sparsely populated county of Hualien tilting some buildings at precarious angles, triggering massive landslides.
Linda Chen, 48, is one of the victims of this earthquake. She says her apartment in downtown Hualien City had been so badly damaged in an earlier disaster back in 2018 that they had to move their house. But unfortunately, her new apartment block was damaged too in this recent earthquake. She says,
“We worry the house could collapse anytime. We thought we had already experienced it once in Hualien and it would not hit us again, because God has to be fair,” she said.
Why this earthquake is considered to be the strongest?
The earthquake which hit Taiwan on Wednesday measures to be of magnitude 7.4,,as per the United States geological Survey, it was the strongest to hit the island in about 25 years.
City’s mayor, Hsu Chen-Wei issued a statement where he assures everyone’s safety in the building. All the residents and businesses in buildings that were in a dangerous state had been evacuated. Demolition work was beginning on four buildings, the mayor said.
This earthquake was captured live on screen as news anchors delivered their bulletins , steadying themselves against giant screens as their sets swayed and lights overhead rocked back and forth.
The earthquake hit at a depth of 15.5km (9.6 miles) as people headed for work and school, setting off a tsunami warning for southern Japan and the Philippines that was later filled.
According to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administeration, the quake measured a magnitude of 7.2 and as per the United States Geological Survey it was 7.4. The earthquake near Taiwan’s eastern shore was felt across the island and parts of mainland China and Japan on Wednesday morning.
Strong tremors in Taipei forced the subway system to close briefly, although most lines resumed service. Rescuers were seen in the video using ladders to help people trapped out of windows.
Fire authorities said they had evacuated over 70 people trapped in tunnels near Hualien city, including 2 German. On a highway through the mountains, huge boulders from a landslide were strewn across the road. The Fire Bureau of Taichung City Government said it rescued a man in his 50s who was unconscious in a truck.
The National Fire Agency said all the fatalities had been in Hualien county, adding that 1,011 people across Taiwan had sustained injuries without specifying how seriously.
“Do not go to the mountains unless necessary,” warned President Tsai Ing-wen in a late-night post. “Aftershocks may occur in the next few days and everyone, please be vigilant and watch out for your own safety.”
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, was “paying close attention” to the quake and “willing to provide disaster relief assistance”, state news agency Xinhua said.
Fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — the world’s biggest chip maker — was briefly interrupted at some plants, a company official told AFP, while work at construction sites for new plants was halted for the day.
The company later said in a statement that a “small number of tools were damaged at certain facilities, partially impacting their operations” but that no “critical tools” had been damaged. It said it was deploying “all available resources for full recovery, and impacted facilities are expected to resume production throughout the night”.
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