3 apr 2024 om 05:59 Update: 14 min. geleden
Taiwan was hit by a major earthquake on Wednesday. According to the country’s seismological service, it is the strongest quake in 25 years. At least four people have been killed, the Taiwanese government reports.
The Taiwanese fire brigade previously reported that one person had been killed by falling rocks. That happened in the mountainous, sparsely populated eastern province of Hualien. That was where the epicenter of the earthquake lay.
The death toll could rise further. At least 26 buildings have collapsed, more than half of them in the city of Hualien. About twenty people are still trapped under the rubble there. Rescue workers try to free them. More than fifty people have been injured.
Public transport has been shut down in various places on the island. In some regions, Taiwanese people are without power, but there are no large-scale power outages.
The 1999 earthquake killed 2,400 people
The earthquake was felt throughout Taiwan and neighboring islands. The Taiwanese Meteorological Institute is talking about an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2. That would be the most powerful earthquake since September 1999, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 killed 2,400 people in Taiwan.
The Japan Meteorological Institute initially reported a magnitude 7.5 quake. This was later adjusted to 7.7. At least nine aftershocks were measured with a magnitude of at least 4.
The quake struck near the coast of Taiwan. Tsunami warnings were issued for Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, but these have now been reversed. A few Japanese islands were hit by a small tsunami, without major consequences.
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