Taipei, Sept 18 -The weather bureau of Taiwan said that a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of the island on Sunday. The quake caused train cars to derail, a convenience store to collapse, and hundreds of people to get stuck on mountain roads.
According to the weather service, the quake’s epicenter was in Taitung county. It came after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in the same area on Saturday night, which did not hurt anyone. The U.S. Geological Survey said the Sunday earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2 and was 10 km deep (six miles).
The fire department in Taiwan said that all four people in a building that collapsed in Yuli and housed a convenience store were saved. Also, three people whose cars fell off a damaged bridge were rescued and taken to the hospital.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said six carriages came off the tracks at Dongli station in eastern Taiwan after part of the platform canopy collapsed. However, the fire department said that no one was hurt.
The department said that more than 600 people are stuck in the beautiful Chike and Liushishi mountain ranges because the roads are closed. No one has been hurt, and rescuers are working on getting the streets open again.
After the quake, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for Taiwan, but it was later taking it down. Japan’s weather agency lifted a tsunami warning for part of Okinawa prefecture.
The weather service said that the quake could be felt all over Taiwan. Buildings shook briefly in Taipei’s capital, and aftershocks have continued to jolt the island. Science parks in the southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung, home to significant semiconductor factories, said operations had no impact.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (2330. TW), said there was “no known significant impact for now.”
Taiwan is close to where two tectonic plates meet, which is why it has a lot of earthquakes.
