At least one dead and 50 injured in 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan

At least one person died today and 50 were injured, following the earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale that shook the coast of Taiwan, the island’s firefighters said.

The earthquake occurred at 09:00 (01:00 in Lisbon), with the epicenter located near the coast of the Hualien region, in eastern Taiwan, at a depth of 15.5 kilometers, according to the China Seismological Center.

All tsunami warnings issued in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center have now been withdrawn.

The first tremor was followed by an aftershock measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The earthquake caused considerable material damage, especially in Hualien, a city with around 100,000 inhabitants, where at least two residential buildings partially collapsed, leaving people trapped inside.

Taiwanese authorities said that 308,242 homes were without electricity, although the supply has already been restored to around 70% of homes.

The mayor of Taipei, Chiang Wanan, declared the disaster response center in Taiwan’s capital level two and asked citizens to be careful and watch out for possible new aftershocks.

Taiwan’s Nuclear Safety Commission said the island’s nuclear facilities were not damaged.

The earthquake was “the strongest in 25 years” on the island, said the director of the Taiwan Seismological Center, Wu Chien-fu. In September 1999, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killed 2,400 people.

In Japan, authorities had asked almost 500,000 people on the islands of Okinawa, Miyakojima and Yaeyama, in the south of the country, to abandon their homes and seek refuge in higher ground.

The tsunami warning also led to the suspension of all flights to and from Naha Airport, on the main island of Okinawa, while passengers at the airport were taken to the upper floors due to the proximity to the coast.

Taiwan is located on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan to the Pacific across South Asia.

VQ // EJ