Taiwan earthquake latest: Aftershocks jolt island as nine dead and 1,000 injured

More than 50 aftershocks since Wednesday morning forced many people in Taiwan to sleep in tents outside their houses or in emergency shelters.

Taiwan’s weather agency has warned citizens to brace for more aftershocks between magnitudes of 6.5 to 7 in the next three days.

“I’m afraid of aftershocks, and I don’t know how bad the shaking will be,” a 52-year-old Hualien resident, who gave her family name as Yu, told Reuters.

Hualien City mayor, Hsu Chen-Wei, said all residents and businesses in buildings that were in a dangerous state had been evacuated and that the demolition work was underway on four buildings.

An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck off the east coast of Honshu, Japan on Thursday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

The quake was recorded at a depth of 32km, just a day after a 7.4 earthquake rocked Taiwan, triggering tsunami warnings for Japan.

A Taipei resident has said she was sleeping in her fifth-floor apartment when she was woken up by the violent shaking from the earthquake.

Hsien-hsuen Keng said: “Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake.

“I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before,” she said.

She said she had witnessed such a powerful quake for the first time in her life “apart from earthquake drills in elementary school”.

Lin Jung, 36 who manages a sneaker shop in Hualien, recounted being at home, preparing to take his 16-month-old baby to a medical appointment when the earthquake hit.

Initially experiencing what seemed like minor tremors, he described how the seismic activity swiftly escalated into intense shaking.

A ceiling lamp’s glass cover fell and broke, prompting him to prioritise shielding his baby from harm amidst the chaos.

“All I could do was protect my baby.”

Taiwan on Wednesday detected 30 Chinese aircraft and nine vessels around the island when it was hit by the strongest earthquake in over two decades.

At least 20 of the aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, middle line and southwestern air defence identification zone, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.

“ROC (Republic of China) Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities,” it said.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said it was highly concerned with the earthquake that hit the island and was willing to provide disaster relief assistance, according to Chinese state media on Wednesday.

“Relevant parties in the mainland were highly concerned and express their sincere condolences to the Taiwan compatriots affected by the disaster,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said.

However, offers of assistance are unlikely to be accepted, given the fraught relations between the island and the mainland.

China and Taiwan remain locked in a longstanding territorial dispute as Beijing lays claim on the island as its own despite not controlling the self-ruling democratic island.

The effects of the earthquake were felt on mainland China and as far away as Taiwanese-controlled islands off the coast of China, said Wu Chien-fu, the head of Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring bureau.

More than 50 people remained missing in Taiwan, a day after the island was jolted by a powerful 7.24 magnitude earthquake.

Taiwan’s fire department said the number of injuries had reached 1,038, putting the total number of missing at 52.

Around a dozen hotel workers on their way to a resort in Taroko National Park had been located, with 38 still listed as missing.

The fire department said its rescue work was focused on people trapped on the cross-island highway, which traverses the gorge connecting Hualien with Taiwan’s west coast and is a popular tourist destination.

Authorities are using drones and helicopters to look for people in the gorge and will drop supplies to them when they are found.

Experts are saying that the severity of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and its impact on Taiwan since the New Year’s Day quake in Japan.

“This magnitude 7.4 earthquake on the central east coast of Taiwan is the largest earthquake to have occurred since the New Year’s Day earthquake on the Noto Peninsula of Japan,” Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre, said.

The reason for the high magnitude is Taiwan’s unique location, professor Meghan S Miller from The Australian National University, explained.

“The M7.4 earthquake that occurred 35 km beneath the east coast of Taiwan was the result of the convergence between the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian plate. This complex tectonic setting has produced many other large (M7+) earthquakes historically,” Dr Miller said.