Hundreds rescued after Taiwan quake
Five deaths, scores of injuries
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan early today, toppling several buildings and killing at least five people in Tainan, one of the island’s oldest cities, according to Taiwanese news reports.
At least one of the buildings that fell was a residential high-rise. Firefighters and other rescue workers scrambled through the wreckage, searching for survivors.
The emergency response centre said that three peo- ple were killed at the building including a 10-day-old infant, a 55-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man.
Taiwan’s official news agency said the infant and the man were pulled out of a 17-storey Wei Guan residential building and that both were later declared dead. The agency said 256 people were believed to have been living in 92 households.
Dozens more people have been rescued or safely moved from a market and a seven-floor building that was badly damaged, the Central News Agency reported.
A bank building was also damaged, but no injuries were reported, it said.
Most people were caught asleep when a shallow temblor struck about 4 a.m. local time (noon Friday PST). it was particularly damaging because of the shallow depth.
The quake was centred 36 kilometres southeast of Yujing, and struck about 10 kilometres underground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake hit a day before the eve of the Lunar New Year, a time of family celebrations.
Derek Hoerler, an elementary school teacher originally from California, said he woke up and felt violent shaking. “It was not a rolling gentle earthquake, but a violent jerking motion. The walls were shaking and you could hear the building and windows moving,” said Hoerler, 37, who lives in New Taipei City and was visiting family in Kaohsiung when the quake hit. “It lasted at least a minute with swaying afterwards. I felt complete terror.
“Biggest earthquake I’ve felt, and I’m from Califor- nia,” said Hoerler, who is originally from Santa Clara.
“Now I just feel worried for the people in Tainan, where buildings collapsed.”
As dawn broke, live Taiwanese TV showed survivors being brought gingerly from the high-rise, including an elderly woman in a neck brace and others wrapped in blankets. The trappings of daily life — a partially crushed air conditioner, pieces of a metal balcony, windows — lay twisted in rubble.
People with their arms around firefighters were being helped from the building, and cranes were being used to search darkened parts of the structure for survivors.
Newscasters said other areas of the city were still being canvassed for possible damage.
Men in camouflage, apparently military personnel, marched into one area of collapse carrying large shovels.
The quake was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island.
But Taipei was quiet, with no sense of emergency or obvious damage just before dawn.
Taiwan’s outgoing president, Ma Ying-jeou, was en route to the disaster site.
Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage.
However, a magnitude7.6 earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.