AP
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| Rescue personnel help a victim at a damaged building after an earthquake in Tainan, southern Taiwan/Reuters |
TAIPEI: Rescuers raced to find
survivors after a powerful, shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern
Taiwan before dawn on Saturday, collapsing a high—rise residential complex and
killing at least seven people, sending scores to hospital and leaving about a
couple dozen missing.
Rescuers pulled 247 survivors from
the rubble in the worst-hit Tainan city. More than 1,200 firefighters scrambled
with ladders, cranes and other equipment to the ruins of a 17-floor residential
building that folded like an accordion in a pile of rubble and twisted metal.
Local media said the building
included a care center for newborns and mothers, and a newborn was among the
dead in the disaster, which came two days ahead of the Lunar New Year
celebrations that are the most important family holiday in the Chinese
calendar.
Most people were caught asleep
when temblor struck about 4 a.m. local time (2000 GMT Friday). It hit some 22
miles (35 kilometers) southeast of Yujing, and struck about 6 miles (10
kilometers) underground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“If first starting shaking
horizontally, then up and down, then a big shake right to left,” said Tainan
resident Lin Bao-gui, a second-hand car salesman whose cars were smashed when
the residential complex across the street from him collapsed.
“I stayed in my bed but jumped up
when I heard the big ‘bang’ that was the sound of the building falling,” he
said.
The emergency response center said
seven people were killed, including a 10-day-old infant, a small child and at
least two other residents inside the high-rise. One death was caused by falling
objects. No details were immediately available for the two additional deaths.
Rescuers pulled out 247 survivors,
the emergency center said. Seventy-three people were sent to hospitals, the
center said.
The Wei Guan residential tower was
home to 256 people living in 96 units. According to the disaster response
center, 230 of them were rescued and 26 unaccounted for, although it was
unclear how many people were inside the building at the time of the fall.
The Taiwanese news website ET
Today reported that a mother and a daughter were among the survivors from the
Wei Guan building, and that the girl drank her urine while waiting for rescue,
which came sooner than expected.
Dozens more people have been
rescued or safely evacuated from a market and a seven—floor building that was
badly damaged, the official China Central News Agency reported. A bank building
also careened, but no injuries were reported, it said.
As dawn broke, live Taiwanese TV
showed survivors being brought gingerly from the high—rise, including an
elderly woman in a neck brace and others wrapped in blankets. The trappings of
daily life a partially crushed air conditioner, pieces of a metal balcony,
windows lay twisted in rubble.
People with their arms around
firefighters were being helped from the building, and cranes were being used to
search darkened parts of the structure for survivors. Newscasters said other
areas of the city were still being canvassed for possible damage.
Men in camouflage, apparently
military personnel, marched into one area of collapse carrying large shovels.
The disaster response center said
1,236 rescuers were deployed, including 840 from the army, along with six
helicopters and 23 rescue dogs.
The quake was felt as a lengthy,
rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island. But
Taipei was quiet, with no sense of emergency or obvious damage just before
dawn.
Residents in mainland China also
reported that the tremor was felt there.
Questions were being asked if the
construction crew had cut corners when building the Wei Guan residential
complex that was finished in 1989. The interior minister, Chen Wei—zen, said an
investigation would examine if the developer skirted requirements.
Earthquakes frequently rattle
Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage.
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