UPDATE: 5:10pm
The whole of Taiwan was jolted by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck just off the coast of Hualien County at 7:58am on Wednesday, the largest quake to hit the nation in 25 years.
As of 4:30pm, the death toll had reached nine. A total of 821 people were injured, and 127 were still trapped or stranded.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
According to the Central Weather Administration (CWA), the epicenter was 25km south-southeast of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 15.5km.
The highest intensity of 6 was felt in Hualien, while Yilan and Miaoli counties registered over 5.
Intensities of just under 5 were felt in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taichung and Taoyuan, as well as Nantou, Hsinchu and Changhua counties.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Most of the rest of the country experienced intensities of 4, even as far south as Pingtung County.
Four people reportedly died after being struck by falling rocks in Taroko National Park, three of the whom were hiking the Dekalun Trail (得卡倫步道).
One other hiker along the Xiaozhuilu Trail (小錐麓步道) was missing.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
The fourth was accompanying her husband doing roadwork along Provisional Highway No. 8 when rocks fell on her.
Nearby, a truck driver was reportedly killed by a fallen boulder along the Suhua Highway, while another motorist was also hit by falling debris in the Daqingshui Tunnel (大清水隧道).
The seventh casualty was a person working in the Taiwan Cement (台泥) Heren (和仁) mining area who was hit by falling rocks.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Hualien County Government announced that school and classes would be suspended on Wednesday following the quake.
Several buildings in Hualien City were tilting at severe angles after the quake, one of which is a large building at the intersection of Zhongshan and Chongqing roads.
Emergency responders had rescued everyone from the building by the late afternoon, but the last person they removed was not showing vital signs.
As of 3:30pm, the Central Emergency Operation Center had reported 28 collapsed buildings: 17 in Hualien, one in Yilan County, two in Keelung and eight in New Taipei City.
AFTERSHOCKS
The CWA warned of the possibility of aftershocks measuring magnitude 6.5 to 7 over the next three to four days.
There were 123 aftershocks recorded as of 4:30pm, nine of which measured between magnitudes 5 and 6, while two exceeded magnitude 6 at 8:11am and 10:14am, CWA data showed.
This morning’s earthquake was felt across Taiwan, as it was both shallow and close to land, CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) said.
Initial observations suggest that it was the main quake, although strong aftershocks are possible, Wu said.
This is the strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan since the magnitude 7.3 quake on Sept. 21, 1999, he said, adding that the intensity readings might be adjusted, but it initially appears to be a similar magnitude.
TRANSPORTATION
MRT services in Taipei were suspended for 40 to 60 minutes for routine safety checks, although there were no initial reports of irregularities.
Services on all lines had resumed by 10am.
In New Taipei City, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems said that the Circular Line (Yellow Line) would take a while to repair after the tracks between Zhongyuan and Banxin stations shifted in the quake.
Trains on the line would not restart before the end of the day, so extra bus services would be added, the department said.
The Taichung MRT and high-speed rail also suspended services temporarily along the entire line.
On the Taiwan Railway, the stretch from Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪) to Fonglin Township (鳳林) in Hualien County is closed due to damage.
The eastern branch of the Highway Bureau said that parts of the Suhua Highway from Yilan’s Suao Township (蘇澳) to Hualien’s Chongde (崇德) area were closed, as well as the Central Cross-Island Highway from Dayuling Pass (大禹嶺) to Taroko.
A tsunami warning has been issued in Japan’s Okinawa and several provinces in the Philippines.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the