Taiwan earthquake: 7 dead, 150 injured

Deadly earthquake topples buildings in Taiwan city of Tainan

Hundreds of Taiwanese firefighters and military personnel raced Saturday to rescue dozens of people trapped in collapsed buildings after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan before dawn.

At least seven people, including a 10-day-old girl, were reported killed in the temblor, which struck hardest in the city of Tainan, authorities said.

The powerful quake ripped a 10-foot chasm in a golf course, cut off water supplies to 400,000 people and halted high-speed rail service to the southern half of the island just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

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As of 1:30 p.m., authorities said the earthquake had left at least seven dead and 422 injured, while 11 buildings were collapsed or dangerously tilted. Local TV showed firefighters using ladders to scramble over the concrete rubble of several apartment buildings, looking for victims. At least one woman trapped in the rubble called firefighters from her cellphone and was trying to direct rescuers to her location, Apple Daily reported.

In another case, firefighters found a 7-year-boy after following the cries of his pet cat, named Meow-meow, who stayed by his side after the quake struck, the Taiwan News said.
The quake cast a pall over the island amid the approach of Lunar New Year, a peak travel period when many people return their hometowns.  

Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou flew to Tainan, pledging “all-out efforts” to rescue those who remained trapped and assist others affected by the disaster. Ma said the military had prepared 1,200 beds in four shelters in the area to accommodate the displaced.

The earthquake knocked out 69 power lines, affecting more than 121,000 households in the city, according to the Taiwan Power Co. Rail authorities said power cuts, not damage to tracks, was the reason for the suspension of train service. Water supplies to about 400,000 households were interrupted.

Among the seven killed, six were residents of a collapsed 17-story residential building in Tainan, including the 10-day-old girl and a 6-year-old girl. Another victim, a 56-year-old woman, was killed when a water tower collapsed. 

Structural engineers told local media that it appeared the building may not have met earthquake standards, noting that photos taken before the quake show a base too narrow for a structure of such height in an active seismic zone. The Interior Ministry and Tainan’s mayor announced they would launch investigations into the building’s design and construction.

The quake, which hit at 3:57 a.m. Saturday, was particularly bad because it was very shallow -- about six miles underground -- and the epicenter was on the island, not offshore, said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Paul Caruso. People felt the earthquake as far away as mainland China, 100 miles to the west across the Taiwan Strait. 

Kate Chou, who runs a hostel in Tainan, said she was on her way to the bathroom when the shaking started.  

“The ground was not only moving sideways, but up and down as well. It felt like the Sept. 21 earthquake had come back,” she said, referring to Taiwan’s 7.6-magnitude quake on Sept. 21, 1999, that killed about 2,500 people -- the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s recent history.

“It was shorter than the Sept. 21 quake,” Chou added, “but for someone who had firsthand experience of the Sept. 21 quake, any trembling of the window or door could still seem ominous.”
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, 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 California," said Hoerler, 37, who is originally from Santa Clara.

Hoerler said he was in the Sacramento area when the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area in 1989, and he thought this temblor in Taiwan felt different.

"That was a rolling quake in ’89," he said. "I remember seeing the pavement actually roll like a wave. The one in Taiwan felt like [the earth moved] up and down, side to side -- violent jerking, like someone was shaking you hard." 

Lee Cheng-kuo, who lives in Kaohsiung, said the violent shaking woke him, his wife and two sons. “Our stereo fell and hit our table really hard. Bottles and other stuff also fell,” he said. They immediately ran out of their house.

"Taiwan is in an earthquake zone, so we are all somehow experienced and alert to things of this kind,” he said. "Apartments are more damaged than houses. One-story houses like ours are better off,” he added, though water service was knocked out, making pre-holiday cleaning chores difficult.   

Prashant Kumar, an engineering student at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, said the quake left “huge cracks” in the pillars of his dormitory.

“I am afraid of another earthquake like that and I don’t know what will happen to this building,” said Kumar, who is from near Kolkata, India.

The epicenter of the earthquake was underneath the central mountain range of Taiwan -- about 27 miles southeast of Tainan and 24 miles northeast of Kaohsiung, the island's main port city. 
Taiwan sits in a collision zone between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates, and is seismically active.

Chan is a special correspondent. Makinen and Kaiman reported from Beijing. Rong-Gong Lin in Los Angeles, Nicole Liu in The Times’ Beijing bureau and special correspondent Chuan Xu and contributed to this report.

Taiwan Earthquake Topples Buildings : Leaving at least 7 Dead and Hundreds Injured

An earthquake has toppled buildings in the south Taiwanese city of Tainan, killing at least seven people.

Rescue teams have been trying to reach people trapped in rubble since the magnitude 6.4 quake struck just before 04:00 (20:00 GMT Friday).

A baby was among at least four people killed when a high-rise block collapsed. More than 300 people have been injured.

President Ma Ying-jeou promised an "all-out effort" to rescue people.

Shelters would be set up for those who had lost their homes in the city of two million people, he said when he arrived in the city.

Television pictures showed rescue workers frantically trying to reach people trapped in collapsed buildings, using ladders to climb over piles of rubble.

One of the worst affected was the 17-storey Wei Kuan apartment complex, home to at least 256 people.

More than 200 people were rescued, but a baby, young girl and two adult men did not survive, officials said. At least 30 people are believed to still be trapped inside.

Interior Minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared more people may have been in the fallen apartment block than usual as families gathered to celebrate Chinese New Year.

He said investigators would examine whether the building's construction met requirements.

Residents told how they were able to escape from their homes in the block.
"I used a hammer to break the door of my home which was twisted and locked, and managed to climb out," one woman told local TV.

Another man tied clothes together to make a rope and lowered himself from the ninth floor to the sixth floor below, Apple Daily reports.

Irving Chu was in a hostel in central Tainan. He said he had been woken up by a tremor lasting about 40 seconds.

"It was a violent jerking motion," he told BBC World News. "The entire room was shaking. We were just holding on to things. We were shaken up."

Barry Knapp, a British man in Taiwan, said he was 240km (150 miles) north of Tainan but still felt the tremor.

"I was just in bed, about to fall asleep, and shaking started happening," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It was going on for about 20 to 30 seconds and it came in waves. It was shaking and then it eased off, but then it started shaking even harder."

The quake was shallow, meaning its effects would have been amplified, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

There have also been at least five aftershocks. The quake was felt in the capital Taipei, 300 km away.
Although the damage does not appear to be widespread, a number of tall buildings have been left leaning precariously.

There are also reports of power outages, and transport links have been disrupted on what is one of the busiest travelling days of the year ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and often sees tremors.

Beijing has offered assistance although at the moment at least, given the relatively limited scale of the disaster, it does not look as if much outside help is needed, the BBC's John Sudworth reports from the Chinese capital.

Back in 1999, when a 7.6 magnitude quake killed more than 2,300 people in central Taiwan, a similar offer of help from the mainland became embroiled in political wrangling, with Taiwan accusing China of exploiting the situation for its own political ends, our correspondent adds. 

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