Four killed, 145 missing after quake rocks Taiwan tourist area

Four killed, 145 missing after quake rocks Taiwan tourist area

Taipei, Feb 14 (Just News) : Rescuers combed through the rubble of collapsed buildings on Wednesday, some using their hands as they searched for about 145 people missing after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck near the popular Taiwanese tourist city of Hualien overnight.

At least four people were killed and 225 injured in the quake that hit near the coastal city just before midnight (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, officials said. The latest figures from government data indicated 145 people were missing.

Many of those were believed to be still trapped inside buildings, including a military hospital, after the quake hit about 22 km (14 miles) northeast of Hualien on Taiwan's east coast.

Aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5.0 could rock the island in the next two weeks, the government said. Japanese, Czech and mainland Chinese nationals were among the injured.



Emergency workers surrounded a damaged residential building in the area. Windows had collapsed and the building was wedged into the ground at a 40-degree angle.


‘We were still open when it happened,’ said Lin Ching-wen, who operates a restaurant near the military hospital.

‘I grabbed my wife and children and we ran out and tried to rescue people,’ he said.


An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck nearby on Sunday.


More than 100 were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, and some Taiwanese remain scarred by a 1999 earthquake with 7.6 magnitude that was felt across the island and which killed more than 2,000 people

(Just News/ot/1136h)