February 6, 2016
TAIPEI: Twenty people died and around 150 were severely injured when an earthquake
of magnitude 6.4 struck Taiwan causing widespread damages in the city of Tainan.
Seventeen residential buildings collapsed in the city. Two hundred people were rescued from the debris. The injured have been hospitalised.
The city is the oldest in Taiwan and has a population of 1.9 million. The buildings
shook violently as the quake occurred. People started running out for help into open
grounds. Local television footage revealed dust bellowing from collapsed buildings.
Over a lakh of homes in Tainan city was left without power. According to the US
Geological Survey the tremor was centred about 48 km (30 miles) east-southeast of
Tainan.
Reports said more than 1,200 firefighters scrambled with ladders, cranes and other
equipment to rescue people trapped in the debris of a 17-storey residential building
that collapsed. Nine other buildings also had collapsed.
Taiwan's interior minister said there would be an investigation, according to Reuters. The buildings in the city are said to have been built poorly.
The disaster happened two days ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations, also public
holiday.
The Taiwanese news agency reported that 247 survivors were pulled out of the
collapsed high-rise building.
Taiwan, frequently rocked, is in the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and close to two tectonic plates. In the September 1999 quake, 2,400 people were killed.
