Strong earthquake rocks Taiwan, prompts tsunami warnings in region
globalnews.caearthquake off the coast Taiwan with a magnitude of 7.2 rocked the entire island on Wednesday morning, collapsing buildings in a southern city and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands.Taiwan television stations showed footage of some collapsed buildings in the lightly populated eastern city of Hualien, near the quake’s epicentre, and media reported some people were trapped. A five-story building appeared heavily damaged, collapsing its first floor and leaving the rest leaning at a 45-degree angle.In the capital, Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings and within some newer office complexes.
The strong quake knocked out power in several parts of the city, according to a Reuters witness.Train service was suspended across the island of 23 million people, as was subway service in Taipei. But things quickly returned to normal in the capital, with children going to school and the morning commute appearing to be normal.The quake hit at 07:58 a.m.
(2358 GMT) at a depth of 15.5km (9.6 miles) just off the eastern coast of Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration. It was the strongest quake to hit the island in 25 years, state media said.The head of Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring bureau, Wu Chien-fu, said effects were detected as far away as Kinmen, a Taiwanese-controlled island off the coast of China.
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