Another earthquake rocked the central and southern regions of the island yesterday, injuring hundreds and causing the collapse of at least 12 buildings, but no deaths were reported.
The quake struck at 10:19am, just 2.5km northwest of Chiayi City and measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, the Central Weather Bureau said.
"We believe that the Chiayi quake has a totally different cause from the Chichi [921] quake and its aftershocks may last over one month," a weather official said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
A chemical laboratory at Chungcheng University caught fire when chemicals fell and mixed during the quake.
Military and local fire department teams fought the fire on the campus and evacuated students from the university's buildings.
The fire burned up to seven classrooms but no-one was injured, said a Minhsiung (
At the Minhsiung engineering school, students escaped screaming from an old building, formerly used as an electronics classroom. The building collapsed but only seven students received minor injuries.
Natural gas leaked from broken gas pipes in many homes and many residents were trapped in elevators after electricity in the area shut down.
The first floor of a two-storey freight transport company building in Chiayi gave way and several of its employees received minor injuries.
"We thought one person was trapped in the building and we were calling for him, but a few minutes later he escaped through the back of the building," the company's owner told a local television reporter.
Traffic was not seriously impeded and telecommunications remained unaffected, but over 90,000 households in both Chiayi and Yunlin Counties were powerless, though power was restored by 2pm yesterday.
There was serious damage to some famous tourist spots in local mountain areas, such as Alishan (
The continuing aftershocks led government authorities in Chiayi to suspend classes. "Children were really frightened by the tremors this past month," said a teacher at one of Chiayi's schools.
Central government departments set up a center to manage and coordinate rescue and relief efforts.
Vice President Lien Chan (
Residential buildings in Tai-chung and Nantou Counties were rocked by the new quake but there were no reports of further casualties or damage.
"We neither received any messages about victims, nor found any casualties when police and firemen inspected our county after the Chiayi quake," the spokesman of Nantou County Fire Department said.
"It is possible that all buildings which were going to collapse would have done so during the Chichi quake," one official added.
The Chiayi-Tainan, or Chianan region, has been hit by several strong quakes in the past century and is located in a highly active fault area, seismologists said.
Chiayi County has a population of 263,000 and is located 300km south of Taipei.
Experts say an even bigger quake could still hit the area.
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