A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday, cracking walls, knocking cellphones off the air and spooking the stock market as it brought back bad memories of the big, deadly quake of 1999.
At least four people were injured by falling objects, but there were no immediate reports of death or serious damage from the 6.2-magnitude quake centered under the sea off Taiwan's northeast coast.
In Taipei, some buildings were damaged. Inside skyscrapers, objects fell off shelves and ceiling lights swayed as the earth shook for about 20 seconds.
Roof tiles flew off of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂), the government said, and there were reports of walls cracking and falling across the island.
As of press time yesterday, three people were reported injured in the greater Taipei area, where the quake had an intensity of 5.0.
Meanwhile, six cases of damage to property, also in the greater Taipei area, have been reported, including a fire that ignited at an electricity transmission station on Chuangching Road. The fire was extinguished after just 10 minutes.
``The quake was felt almost all over Taiwan,'' said Leu Peih-lin (
"Aftershocks of a magnitude between 2 and 4 [on the Richter scale] can be expected for the next month," she said. "Most of them should be so minor that they won't even be felt."
The epicenter of yesterday's quake was located about 19km east of Ilan County, the weather bureau said.
Some mobile phone networks collapsed for about two hours, with 28 telecommunications base stations going out of service.
There were no immediate estimates of the damage.
The jolt came as international dignitaries gathered at the opening ceremony of a government-run food fair, where Taiwan hoped to showcase some of its culture to officials from its small circle of diplomatic allies.
``It was my first experience in this field. In my country there are no such strong earthquakes,'' said Sebastien Hilaire, the agriculture minister from Haiti.
About 12,000 homes in central Taipei lost power for two minutes, a utility official said.
The quake followed a 6.3-magnitude quake late Wednesday that also was centered under the seabed east of Ilan County, but the first one was farther from shore and deeper in the earth, and they appeared unrelated, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Seismologists said yesterday's tremor was felt more strongly than Wednesday's quake of slightly greater magnitude, because it was centered just 10km below the surface of the earth.
Most quakes that shake the country occur at greater depths.
Those using roads in eastern Taiwan have been warned against possible landslides, particularly in mountainous areas, in the wake of the two strong earthquakes and because of the monsoon season, which has been battering the island with heavy rains.
Earthquakes are common in Taiwan, but most are small, and yesterday's shook the capital harder than any since the 7.6-magnitude quake and ensuing aftershocks struck central Taiwan in Sept. 1999, killing about 2,400 people and leaving thousands homeless.
No major damage was reported immediately in Ilan County, but a state radio report said many people fled from their homes in fear.
The government said three people in Taipei County were hurt by falling objects, and radio reports said a chef at an Ilan restaurant was injured when a falling metal plate cut his leg.
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