(UPDATE) AT least nine people were killed and more than 800 injured on Wednesday by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan that damaged dozens of buildings and prompted tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines before being lifted.
Officials said the quake was the strongest to shake the island in decades and warned of more tremors in the days ahead.
“The earthquake is close to land, and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands,” said Wu Chien-fu, director of Taipei’s Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center.
Strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe for the earthquake-prone island, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
Wu said the quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.
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Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake hit just before 8 a.m. local time, with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicenter 18 kilometers south of Taiwan’s Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometers.
The National Fire Agency said all the fatalities had been in Hualien county, adding that 882 people had been injured without specifying how seriously.
The Manila Economic Cultural Office (MECO) said all Filipinos in Taiwan are safe.
People crowd due to tsunami warning at Naha Airport in Naha, Okinawa prefecture on April 3, 2024. PHOTO BY JIJI PRESS/AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a man reacting after a brick wall in a house collapsed in Taipei, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows people gathering in the lobby of the Taipei 101 office building in Taipei, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows people looking at a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows emergency workers attending to a survivor, who had been trapped in a damaged building, in New Taipei City, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This UGC handout from a user known as Way shows a damaged building in Hualien on April 3, 2024, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. A major 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan’s east on the morning of April 3, prompting tsunami warnings for the self-ruled island as well as parts of southern Japan and the Philippines. AFP PHOTO / UGC via user Way
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows an area being cordoned off after damage to a building in Taipei, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
People crowd due to tsunami warning at Naha Airport in Naha, Okinawa prefecture on April 3, 2024. (Photo by JIJI Press / AFP) / Japan OUT
This screenshot taken from a UGC video handout from a user known as Way shows a firefighter running past a damaged building in Hualien on April 3, 2024, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. AFP PHOTO / UGC via user Way
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a man reacting after a brick wall in a house collapsed in Taipei, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east. Photo by CNA / AFP
MECO Chairman and Resident Representative Silvestre Bello 3rd, in a statement, said that based on their monitoring in Taipei and reports coming from MECO’s field offices in Taichung and Kaohsiung, as well as reports coming from Filipino communities in Taiwan, there are no Filipino casualties or injuries in the aftermath of the earthquake and the aftershocks.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assured the public that the government was exerting all efforts to ensure the safety of Filipinos in Taiwan.
“Our hearts are with the people of Taiwan as they endure the aftermath of today’s powerful earthquake. Rest assured, our Department of Migrant Workers is diligently ensuring the safety of the 159,480 Filipinos currently residing in Taiwan,” the Chief Executive said in a statement.
“We stand ready to assist and support our fellow Filipinos in Taiwan in any way possible during this difficult period,” he added.
Social media was awash with shared videos and images from around the country of buildings swaying as the quake struck.
“It was shaking violently; the paintings on the wall, my TV and liquor cabinet fell,” one man in Hualien told broadcaster SET TV.
Dramatic images were shown on local TV of multi-story structures in Hualien and elsewhere tilting after the quake ended, while a warehouse in New Taipei City crumbled.
The mayor there said more than 50 survivors had been successfully plucked from the ruins of the structure.
Local TV channels showed bulldozers clearing rocks along the main route to Hualien, a mountain-ringed coastal city of around 100,000 people that has been cut off by landslides.
The main roads leading to the city pass through an extensive series of tunnels — some of them kilometers long — and officials said many people and vehicles could be trapped inside.
“We must carefully check how many people are trapped, and we must rescue them quickly,” incoming Taiwan leader and current deputy leader Lai Ching-te told reporters in Hualien.
Outgoing Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen called for local and central government agencies to coordinate with each other, and said the military would also be providing support.
In Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, authorities initially issued tsunami warnings, but by around 10 a.m., the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat had “largely passed.”
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) canceled its earlier tsunami warnings after the threat had subsided.
Immediately after the earthquake, Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol recommended the immediate evacuation of residents living along the coastal areas, especially in the Batanes Group of Islands, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and Isabela.
The Cagayan Valley Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council led the evacuation of residents living in coastal areas on Wednesday, but stopped after the tsunami warning was lifted.
The municipality of Aparri announced that classes in all levels were suspended as a result of the tsunami warning.
Other towns in the province also suspended their classes.
Senators Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Aquilino Pimentel 3rd, Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, and Mary Grace Poe urged the concerned government agencies to ensure that Filipinos in Taiwan were safe.
In the Taiwanese capital, the metro briefly stopped running but resumed within an hour, while residents received warnings from their local borough chiefs to check for any gas leaks.
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.
Across the Taiwan Strait, social media users in China’s eastern Fujian province, which borders Guangdong in the south, and elsewhere said they also felt strong tremors.
Residents of Hong Kong also reported feeling the earthquake.
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, was “paying close attention” to the quake and “willing to provide disaster relief assistance,” state news agency Xinhua said.
Fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — the world’s biggest chip maker — was briefly interrupted at some plants, a company official said, while work at construction sites for new plants was halted for the day.
WITH WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL, ARIC JOHN SY CUA, JAVIER JOE ISMAEL AND BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
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