Eastern and northern Taiwan were rocked by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 11:50pm on Tuesday night, which killed at least five people. injured 254 and badly damaged at least four buildings in Hualien.
The Central Weather Bureau said the quake’s epicenter was 18.3km northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 10km, which is relatively shallow.
The impact of the temblor was strengthened by its high intensity in certain areas, with Hualien City and Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳) registering a level of 7 — the highest on the nation’s 7-tier intensity scale.
Photo: Paul Yang, AFP
The US Geological Survey measured the quake’s magnitude at 6.4, and said it was the result of oblique strike-slip faulting at shallow depth near the plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and Eurasia plates in Taiwan’s northeast coast.
The Central Weather Bureau said the intensity of Tuesday night’s quake and the number of its foreshocks and aftershocks are higher than have ever been recorded in the region. It warned that more aftershocks are to be expected, while big temblors are also possible.
Between the magnitude 6.0 temblor on Tuesday and 1pm yesterday 150 aftershocks were recorded, including four that were magnitude 5.0 or higher, bureau data showed.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
As of yesterday afternoon, the Central Emergency Operations Center said 224 people had been rescued and 88 remained unaccounted for.
Four of the dead were found in the partially collapsed Yun Men Tsui Ti (雲門翠堤), a residential/commercial building that includes a restaurant and a backpacker’s hostel, while the other one was an employee at the Marshal Hotel (統帥大飯店).
Dozens of people were rescued overnight with ropes and ladders from the 12-story Yun Men Tsui Ti, which is tilting at 40˚ angle.
Photo: EPA-EFE /Presidential Office
Thirty-nine people with household registrations in the building are unaccounted for, as well as 17 people staying in the hostel on the first to third floors of the building.
Rescuers were working yesterday to reach two more employees of the Marshal Hotel trapped in the building who had earlier responded to search teams.
Authorities said the injured included Chinese, Czech, Japanese, Singaporean and South Korean nationals.
Photo: Paul Yang, AFP
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Hualien yesterday morning to inspect the rescue operations and visit with the survivors.
Many of the streets in Hualien City, which has a population of about 100,000 people, were buckled by the force of the quake.
A Hualien resident who lives near the Yun Men Tsui Ti told Agence France-Presse he had seen the building partially collapse.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
“I saw the first floor sink into the ground. Then it sank and tilted further and the fourth floor became the first floor,” the wire agency quoted Lu Chih-son, 35, as saying.
Tuesday night’s earthquake came on the two-year anniversary of the magnitude 6.4 quake that struck southern Taiwan, toppling the Weiguan Jinlong residential complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康).
A total of 116 were killed in the 2016 temblor.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS