In case you haven't heard.
Strong Earthquake Hits Taiwan
By Alice Hung
Reuters
TAIPEI (Sept. 21) - A powerful earthquake shook Taiwan early on Tuesday, toppling buildings as people slept inside, and first reports said several had been killed.
''We have at least five people dead, a couple of people missing, 22 to 24 trapped. These are preliminary reports,'' a Taiwan government spokesman said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it was a ''large and potentially damaging'' quake. It struck at 1.47 a.m. and measured 7.6 on the open-ended Richter scale. The earthquake in Turkey last month which killed more than 15,000 people measured 7.4 on the scale.
A Reuters reporter saw injured people dragged from the wreckage of fallen buildings. One large building had collapsed in concertina fashion. Rescuers guided victims, semi-naked or wearing pyjamas, down ladders to safety.
A Taiwan journalist told CNN that three buildings had collapsed in Taipei, one of them 12 storeys high, and several people had been reported buried under debris.
A Taipei resident said two schools had collapsed and that students were trapped in one of them.
Rescuers carried an injured child and old women to safety through mangled wreckage of concrete and metal, with water streaming from pipes.
Shocked victims were shown clinging to the balconies of what had been their homes.
Taiwan state radio said the quake appeared to be centred in Nantou, a seismically active area in the centre of the island.
It was believed to be the strongest earthquake ever to hit Taiwan, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.
Stuart Koyanagi of the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, told CNN that a tsunami or tidal wave warning had been issued by Taiwan authorities.
''This is similar to the quake in Turkey. But we still don't know how deep below the surface the earthquake was,'' he said.
''We estimate this is a major earthquake. We only record five to ten such quakes a year. Quakes like this can kill dozens of people and collapse a lot of buildings.''
Residents of Taipei said the city had been plunged into darkness by a power cut and nervous citizens had poured into the streets, which were being patrolled by police cars.
State radio said damage to buildings was greater in rural areas and electricity had been cut to most parts of the island.
Premier Vincent Siew broadcast a message on state radio, appealing to Taiwan people to stay calm and telling them that everything was being done to rescue people, CNN said.
Michael Armstrong, a guest in the Taipei Hyatt Hotel, said he had been awoken by the quake.
''I was fast asleep and the violent shaking woke me up. the shaking seemed to go on for about 30 seconds. After the main quake the hotel seemed to keep shaking,'' he told CNN.
Reut 16:54 09-20-99
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