One 7.5 magnitude earthquake was felt this Wednesday morning (3, Tuesday night in Brasília) near Taiwan and provoked tsunami warnings in that territory and on the islands south of Japan, authorities reported. The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the “tsunami threat has passed.”
Two buildings collapsed in the eastern Taiwan city of Hualien, where “some people are believed to be trapped”, a local fire official told AFP.
The Japan Meteorological Agency put the earthquake’s magnitude at 7.5, although the United States Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 7.4. In images that went viral on social media, it is possible to see buildings that collapsed. There is no information on how many people managed to evacuate from the buildings.
“The earthquake occurred close to the earth and is shallow. It was felt throughout Taiwan and the islands […] It is the strongest in 25 years”, Wu Chien-fu, director of the Taiwanese Seismological Center, told the press. In 1999, an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 was felt there and left 2,400 people dead.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported that “the tsunami threat has largely passed.” National authorities can still issue an alert, as reported by the The New York Times.
Taipei’s red line subway service resumed service on both routes around 10 a.m. local time.
There are at least nine landslides on the Suhua highway. The highway is closed, according to the New York Times.
Internet outage
According to the Internet Observatory, connection drops were recorded in several parts of Taiwan after the earthquake.
The lack of internet is due to the tsunami warning.
Tsunami Alert
Taiwanese and Japanese authorities issued tsunami warnings for its coastal regions, predicting waves of up to three meters.
The warning in Japan was for its remote islands near Taiwan, including Miyakojima Island, according to the meteorological agency.
Canceled flights
According to CNNall flights from Japan’s Okinawa and Kagoshima regions were suspended following tsunami warnings in the area, according to Japan Airlines.
Flights that were going to areas with tsunami warnings returned to their original destination.
‘Evacuate’
“Evacuate!” said a sign on Japanese national television NHK. “A tsunami is coming, please evacuate immediately”, said a presenter from that station. “Don’t stop, don’t come back.”
According to the USGS, the earthquake had its epicenter 18 km south of the Taiwanese city of Hualien, with a depth of 34.8 km.
