Natural disaster
After the earthquake in Taiwan: the search for missing people continues – but there is also good news
Rescue teams demolish a collapsed building after the earthquake in Taiwan. The search for missing people continues.
© Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
The worst quake in nearly 25 years has wreaked havoc in many parts of Taiwan. People are still missing. However, there is good news from some miners.
Rescue and clean-up work is underway after the severe earthquake that left at least nine dead and hundreds injured Taiwan further. Emergency services were able to bring six miners trapped in a quarry to safety, the authorities announced on Thursday. Meanwhile, the number of injured rose to 1,050, and around 100 people were still stranded – including 64 workers in another quarry.
There is no contact with 52 people, said Interior Minister Lin You-chang. These people urgently need food and water, he explained. It was initially unclear how many of them are still alive.
According to the authorities, the search for trapped and missing people is focused on the area around the city of Hualien. Around 40 employees at a hotel in Taroko National Park in eastern Taiwan cannot be reached.
Severe earthquake shakes Taiwan – houses collapse
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Worst earthquake in Taiwan in a quarter of a century
The quake hit Taiwan on Wednesday morning during rush hour and was felt across the island of more than 23 million residents. According to Taiwanese data, it reached a magnitude of 7.2 and is considered the most severe earthquake there in almost 25 years. According to its own information, the US earthquake monitoring station recorded a value of 7.4, the Japanese authorities gave the magnitude as 7.7.
The center of the quake was just a few kilometers off the east coast near Hualien, which was hit particularly hard – also because of the relatively shallow depth of the center, only 15.5 kilometers below the earth’s surface. As of Thursday morning, more than 300 less powerful aftershocks had been recorded in Taiwan.
Tsunami warning in several countries
The island lies in an earthquake-prone zone on the edge of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian and the Philippine. In 1999, a similarly strong earthquake hit the island republic with more than 23 million inhabitants. The consequences back then were much more devastating. At least 2,400 people were killed. Taiwan has since invested more in earthquake prevention.
After Wednesday’s tremors, Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines also warned of tsunamis. In Japan, located northeast of Taiwan, authorities issued a warning of a three-meter-high tsunami for nearby islands in the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. Residents of the affected islands were called upon to seek safety. A few hours after the earthquake, countries lifted their warnings.
Germans also affected
There was panic in Taiwan’s cities as the earth shook. Some buildings collapsed or became dangerously tilted. Dishes and other items were broken in many apartments, traffic bridges wobbled dangerously and damage was caused to many streets. Some eyewitnesses reported that they had never seen anything like this before and were shocked by the events.
Many people around Hualien were trapped in traffic tunnels or caves. Including two Germans who were stuck in a tunnel in a national park popular with hikers. They were freed after a few hours, according to the authorities and the Foreign Office. According to a spokesman in Berlin, the Foreign Office also had contact with a tour group of 18 Germans who were originally considered missing. According to the circumstances, they were doing well.
Earthquake also shakes Taiwanese economy
The quake also had an impact on the economy: Taiwan’s important semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, for example, temporarily stopped production on Wednesday, as the authority of the industrial park in the city of Hsinchu announced. The company reportedly evacuated workers during the quake. Other companies also temporarily stopped work. The state-owned energy supplier reported that more than 308,000 households in Taiwan lost power for a long period of time as a result of the quake.