Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years has killed one person and injured at least 50 others, causing building collapses, power outages and landslides on the island and triggering tsunami warnings in southern Japan and the Philippines.
The Japan Meteorological Agency put the magnitude of the quake at 7.7. Buildings were damaged in the city of Hualien on Taiwan’s east coast, with reports that people were trapped inside after aftershocks from the 7:58 a.m. quake. Videos on social media showed children being rescued from collapsed residential buildings.
In Hualien, the hardest-hit city, a five-story building appeared to be severely damaged, with one floor collapsed and the rest leaning at a 45-degree angle. Train lines were damaged and schools and workplaces were closed across large swathes of the city.
Witnesses in Hualien described seeing rocks falling from nearby mountains falling around them as they drove, and feeling the intensity of the shaking, they rushed outside.
Further north, part of the headland of Guishan Island, also known as Turtle Island, a popular tourist resort, slides into the sea. In the capital Taipei, several people were rescued from a partially collapsed warehouse with tiles falling from the building.
Taiwan’s seismic monitoring agency put Wednesday’s quake at magnitude 7.2, the island’s strongest since 1999, when a magnitude 7.6 quake struck 93 miles (150 kilometers) south of Taipei, killing 2,400 people and injuring 10,000.
According to a Bloomberg report, the earthquake caused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a leading semiconductor manufacturer that produces most of the world’s advanced semiconductors, to evacuate its production lines.
Wu Jianfu, director of Taiwan’s Earthquake Monitoring Bureau, said the effects of the earthquake were detected as far away as Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Island off the coast of China. Within an hour after the earthquake, multiple aftershocks occurred in Taipei City.
Japanese media initially said that the earthquake could trigger waves of up to 3 meters in parts of Okinawa Prefecture, about 1,600 kilometers south of Tokyo, but the forecast was later lowered and that waves of up to 1 meter could be triggered in areas around Okinawa. .
Broadcaster NHK said an initial 30cm tsunami hit Yonaguni, a remote island just 110 kilometers from Taiwan, but warned that higher waves could follow. Waves of 20 cm were subsequently observed on Ishigaki Island and Miyako Island.
The tsunami warning has now been downgraded to advisory level. However, an official from the Japan Meteorological Agency urged people to continue evacuating until the warning is lifted. Media reports said some residents on the main island of Okinawa had been evacuated to a nearby U.S. military base, while footage showed others watching the sea from the safety of high ground in Naha, the prefectural capital.
The agency warned that aftershocks similar to those felt in Taiwan could occur next week.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) initially said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.4, with its epicenter 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Hualien City, Taiwan, and a depth of 34.8 kilometers. The Taiwan Earthquake Monitoring Agency initially gave the earthquake a magnitude of 7.2. The Japan Meteorological Agency subsequently upgraded the earthquake to magnitude 7.7 on the Richter scale, with a focal depth of 20 kilometers.
The Philippine seismological agency issued a tsunami warning for the Pacific coast on Wednesday, saying it expected “high tsunami waves” to hit those areas. People in coastal areas of some provinces were advised to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move further inland.
“Vessel owners in ports, estuaries or shallow coastal waters in the above provinces should keep their vessels safe and stay away from the seashore,” the statement said. “Vessels already at sea during this period should remain in deep offshore waters until further notice. .”
It has only been three months since a 7.6-magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture along the Sea of Japan, killing 244 people and causing widespread damage.
Japan’s largest ever earthquake was a 9.0-magnitude undersea tremor off Japan’s northeastern coast in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left about 18,500 people dead or missing.
This is a big story and we’ll be bringing you more as it develops.
