Northern and eastern Taiwan were rocked by a series of earthquakes last night, with the strongest one, as of press time, a magnitude 5.8 temblor at 9:56pm.
The Central Weather Bureau said the 5.8 quake was centered at 27.8km northeast of the Hualien County Hall, a depth of 16 km
It had an intensity of 5 in Hualien and Yilan counties, 4 in Nantou County and 3 in Taichung, Taoyuan and Taipei and Hsinchu and Yunlin counties, the bureau said.
The first big quake of the evening, with a magnitude 5.1, struck at 9:12pm, with its epicenter 24km north-northeast of the Hualien County Hall at a depth of 15.5km, the bureau said.
Three more large temblors stuck after betwen 10:10pm and 10:16pm and were felt across a wide swath of the north and the east coast of the nation: a magnitude 4.6 quake at 10:10pm, a magnitude 5.5 quake at 10:13pm and a magnitude 4.7 quake at 10:16pm, the bureau said.
At least 11 “local” quakes shook the east coast, ranging in size from magnitude 3. 5 to 3.9.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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