The largest earthquake to strike Taiwan in at least 25 years, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, hit the island on Wednesday, killing four, injuring scores, and triggering a tsunami warning that was later canceled for the Philippines and southern Japan.
In the mountainous, thinly populated eastern county of Hualien, where the epicenter was located, the Taiwanese government said that four people had died and more than fifty had been injured.
Taiwan television stations broadcast footage of buildings at dangerous angles in Hualien, where the quake struck just offshore about 8 am (0000GMT) as people were heading to work and school. At least 26 buildings have collapsed, more than half in Hualien, with about 20 people trapped and rescue efforts ongoing, the report said.
The Central Weather Administration of Taiwan reports that the earthquake’s depth was 15.5 km (9.6 miles).
It was really potent. Chang Yu-Lin, a 60-year-old hospital employee in Taipei, described the feeling as though the house was about to fall apart.
The previous tsunami warning was then downgraded to an advisory by Japan’s weather service after multiple small tsunami waves were reported to have reached portions of the southern prefecture of Okinawa. It reported a magnitude of 7.7 for the earthquake.
