An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, felt off the east coast of Taiwan, shook the capital, Taipei, on the morning of this Wednesday, 3, (local time) and cut power in several parts of the city, at the same time. time that issued a tsunami warning for the southern islands of Japan and the Philippines.
The Taipei City Government did not receive any reports of damage and the city’s Mass Rapid Transit went into operation shortly afterwards.
Taiwanese television stations showed images of some collapsed buildings in Hualien, near the quake’s epicenter, and the press generally reported that some people were trapped.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Shanghai, China, according to a Reuters witness.
The epicenter was off the coast of eastern Hualien County, in the waters off the east coast of Taiwan island, the territory’s central climate administration said.
Authorities in Japan have issued an evacuation warning for coastal areas of the southern prefecture of Okinawa.
Tsunami waves of up to 3 meters were expected to reach large areas of Japan’s southwestern coast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which estimated the earthquake’s magnitude at 7.5.
The Philippine Seismology Agency also issued an alert to residents of coastal areas in several provinces asking them to evacuate to higher ground.
The earthquake was felt in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Ningde in China’s Fujian province, according to Chinese state media.
Southern Taiwan Science Park, where semiconductor giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has a factory, said companies are operating without impact.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency said the quake was the biggest to hit the island since 1999, when a 7.6 magnitude temblor killed around 2,400 people.
C/Reuters
Tags: magnitude earthquake shakes Taiwans capital
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