Taipei, Taiwan
CNN
—
Rescue teams in Taiwan scrambled to rescue dozens of people trapped in a highway tunnel on Wednesday after the island was hit by its strongest earthquake in 25 years, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 900.
A powerful tremor of magnitude 7.4 shook the island's east coast at 7:58 a.m. local time, 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometers (21 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. ) occurred. Afterwards, several strong aftershocks occurred, and the shaking was felt across the island, including by CNN staff in the capital Taipei.
Taiwan's National Fire Protection Agency (NFA) said in an update on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to nine and 934 people were injured.
The NFA did not disclose the severity of the injury.
Meanwhile, 75 people stranded in various tunnels in Hualien County were rescued by emergency response forces. As of 7 a.m. ET, 137 people remained trapped.
Those trapped included 50 employees of the Silks Place Hotel Taroko, who were traveling in four minibuses. Authorities are unable to contact them by phone and consider them trapped for the time being.
The NFA added that two German nationals who were earlier caught in a tunnel in Hualien county were rescued.
All of the deaths were in Hualien County, the NFA said, including three hikers killed in a rockfall in the tourist hotspot Taroko Gorge. It added that a truck driver was also killed by falling rocks in front of the Suhua Expressway tunnel on the east coast.
Taiwanese officials said there were reports of extensive damage in Hualien County, with buildings collapsed, thousands of homes without power, and major highways closed due to landslides and falling rocks.
Most of those trapped are in two road tunnels in northern Hualien county, the NFA said. It has been announced that two German nationals are stuck in the third tunnel in the county.
The 400-meter-long Jinwen Tunnel, where 60 people are trapped, is one of more than a dozen tunnels that run along the Suhua Highway, a scenic but dangerous and narrow stretch of 118 kilometers (73 miles) along the east coast. It is one.
Meanwhile, 12 people, including two Canadians, were stranded on the road in Taroko Gorge, and rescue teams were on their way to rescue them.
A spokesperson for Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau warned that strong aftershocks of around magnitude 7 are expected to occur through the weekend.
“There was a really strong shaking…I immediately turned off the gas and electricity and opened the door. It was really strong. I felt like my house was going to collapse,” Zhang Yu-lin, a resident of Taipei, told CNN affiliate Taiwan Plus. He spoke at
“It was really wild,” said Chen Nianzi, who also lives in Taipei.
“It's been a while since we had an earthquake, so it was really scary,” she told Taiwan Plus.
The quake triggered early tsunami warnings in Taiwan, southern Japan and the Philippines, waves were measured at less than half a meter on some beaches, and airlines suspended operations. All tsunami warnings have since been lifted.
According to the Ministry of Defense, aftershocks caused Taiwanese troops to be dispatched to provide disaster relief, and schools and workplaces were suspended.
Outgoing Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that she had instructed her government to “immediately” “understand the situation and assess the local impact as soon as possible.”
Tsai also called on the administration to “provide necessary support and work with local governments to minimize the impact of the disaster.”
Taiwan is a self-governing island east of mainland China, home to approximately 23 million people, most of whom live in industrial cities on the west coast, including the capital.
The island is regularly hit by earthquakes, as it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, which runs along the edge of the Pacific Ocean and causes massive earthquakes and volcanic activity from Indonesia to Chile.
Wednesday's earthquake was the strongest to hit Taiwan since 1999, according to the Central Weather Bureau. That year, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Taipei, killing 2,400 people and injuring 10,000 others.
Approximately 300,000 people live on the east coast of Hualien County, a sparsely populated island with some mountainous and remote areas. In 2018, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck near the area, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 300.
The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, and road and rail closures have restricted access to Hualien County, the epicenter of the quake.
According to the National Fire and Disaster Management Agency, more than 100 buildings were damaged across the island, about half of which were in Hualien County.
Hualien County Judge Hsu Chengwei told reporters that search and rescue operations were continuing Wednesday afternoon at the nine-story Uranus Building, which partially collapsed and trapped residents. According to the NFA, 22 people have been rescued from the building so far.
More than 91,000 households are without power, according to Taiwan's Central Emergency Command Center. It added that the government-run Taiwan Power Company is working to restore power.
Footage posted on social media showed several collapsed buildings in Hualien City and residents rescuing trapped people from the windows of damaged apartment blocks.
The quake occurred during the morning rush hour, and footage showed cars bouncing on violently shaking highways, overpasses in Taipei shaking, and commuters trying to stand up on shaking Taipei subway trains. Ta.
Meanwhile, footage broadcast by CNN affiliate TVBS showed cellphone and security camera footage of the moment the quake struck homes and businesses across the island. One clip showed power lines swinging wildly on a street, while another showed a chandelier swinging in a restaurant.
TVBS footage showed large rocks strewn across Suhua Highway in the east and several tunnels broken, one of which was cracked in half. CNN affiliate SET News shows the front of the car hit by a falling rock.
Traffic authorities recorded at least nine rockfalls and landslides on the closed highway.
Another expressway connecting the west coast and eastern Taiwan was also damaged by falling rocks, causing at least 12 cars to collide and nine people being injured, TVBS reported.
The quake prompted authorities to order evacuations and a tsunami warning for the entire region.
In Taiwan, about 100 kilometers south of the epicenter, waves reached nearly half a meter. The Central Meteorological Bureau advised residents to evacuate to higher ground.
The Japan Meteorological Agency also issued a tsunami warning for southern Miyako Island and the Okinawa Islands, warning of waves up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) high. According to the agency, waves of 30 centimeters (almost a foot) affected Okinawa, making it the first tsunami observed in Okinawa in 26 years.
Hours later, the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center announced that the tsunami threat was “mostly over,” but that people in coastal areas should remain vigilant.
According to Japan Airlines, all flights from Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures have been suspended following a tsunami warning in the area.
Okinawa's Naha Airport has resumed operations after its tsunami warning was downgraded to a advisory, airport spokesperson Hideaki Tsuruto told CNN.
This is a developing story and will be updated.