A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan at 2:44pm yesterday, killing one person — a worker at a cement factory in Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里), who was struck by falling equipment, and at least 79 persons injured.
The quake, centered in Taitung County’s Chihshang Township (池上), also caused an apartment building and two bridges in Hualien to collapse. It was the strongest earthquake to hit the nation so far this year and followed a magnitude 6.4 tremor late on Saturday.
Rescuers in Yuli Township yesterday saved all four people trapped under rubble at the apartment building, and others rescued three people, who were crossing the nearby Kaoliao Bridge (高寮大橋) when it collapsed, the Hualien County Government said.
Photo: AP
The Luntien Bridge (崙天大橋) connecting Hualien’s Jhuosi (卓溪) and Fuli (富里) townships also collapsed.
Damage was also reported at the Yuli Bridge (玉里橋), impeding traffic on Highway No. 9.
Six cars of Tzuchiang Express train No. 402 derailed in Hualien’s Dongli Station after being hit by a collapsing concrete canopy.
Photo: AFP / Taiwan Railways Administration
The Taiwan Railways Administration said that 20 passengers had left the train before the derailment.
Train services were suspended between Hualien and Taitung, the agency said.
It also reported damage to railway tracks and cables along railway lines in the two east coast counties.
Photo: CNA
Nearly 400 travelers were trapped on Yuli’s Chikeshan (赤科山), as a road was damaged by a landslide triggered by the earthquake, local residents said.
Cellphone reception was weak, likely due to utility poles being damaged by landslides, they said.
The quake also damaged water pipes in Yuli, where power outages affected more than 7,000 households.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) announced that schools and offices in Yuli, Fuli and Jhuosi townships would remain closed today, citing damage to homes, roads and other infrastructure.
Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) announced school and office closures in Chihshang, Guanshan (關山), Luye (鹿野), Yenping (延平) and Haiduan (海端) townships.
Shaking was felt as far away as Taipei and Kaohsiung, with residents posting videos on social media of light fixtures swaying.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
A 36-year-old man sustained injuries in Taoyuan’s Bade Civil Sports Center when part of the ceiling fell on a badminton court, the Taoyuan Fire Department said.
Isolated power outages were also reported in Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, New Taipei City and Taitung County.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for several islands in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture near Taiwan, but later lifted it.
Photo: CNA
The magnitude 6.4 foreshock on Saturday night also caused damage to facilities in Taitung, including in Taitung City, and in Guanshan, Chihshang and Luye townships.
An 80-year-old colonial-era house in Taitung City, as well as the 68-year-old Wanan Brick Kilns in Chihshang were damaged. Hundreds of urns in a columbarium in Luye were damaged. In Guanshan, a rice mill and a concrete plant were damaged.
Additional reporting by agencies
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS