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Taiwan has been struck by its strongest earthquake in 25 years – causing buildings to collapse and widespread power outages.

Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency said Wednesday morning’s quake was magnitude 7.2, while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.4 and Japan’s meteorological agency put it at 7.7.

Nine people have died and 821 have been injured after the quake struck in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County during morning rush hour at 7.58am local time (12.58am UK time).

Officials have been working to free 127 people who were trapped in the county. Of those, 77 were underground in Dachingshui and Jinwen tunnels and 50 were passengers of four minibuses in downtown Hualien.

Yu-chang Lin, the interior minister of Taiwan, has said the 77 people have been reached and contacted by the island’s highway bureau.

He added that a rescue operation was under way and all of those trapped were expected to be evacuated before 6pm local time (11am UK time). It is not year clear if the rescue operation has been completed.

Meanwhile, authorities said they had lost contact with those trapped in the minibus.

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Taiwan earthquake triggers landslide

Rescue workers stand near the site of a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan.
Pic: AP
Image:
Rescue workers stand near the site of a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan.
Pic: AP

The epicentre of the initial earthquake was about 11 miles southwest of Hualien and about 22 miles deep.

A five-storey building in Hualien was heavily damaged. The first floor collapsed, leaving the rest leaning at a 45-degree angle.

Traffic along the east coast was brought to a virtual standstill, with landslides and falling debris hitting tunnels and highways in the mountainous region.

Rocks and clouds of dust have also been seen crashing down from mountainous regions with roads and buildings situated below.

Meanwhile, buildings have been seen balanced precariously at odd angles after the initial quake.

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Moment earthquake hits Taiwan

Footage from inside a news studio has shown lights swinging around on the ceiling as the room shakes. A news presenter is seen steadying herself by holding onto a screen as she appears to report on what is happening.

Other footage shows a man in a rooftop swimming pool as the earthquake causes the water to sway from side to side.

In the capital Taipei, in the north of the island, tiles fell from the roofs of older buildings and within some newer office complexes.

Meanwhile, more than 87,000 households in Taiwan were without power, according to the island’s electricity supplier.

Train services across Taiwan – which is home to 23 million people – were suspended, as was the metro.

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Taiwan’s strongest quake since 1999

Firefighters work at the site where a building collapsed following the earthquake, in Hualien, Taiwan.
Pic:Taiwan's National Fire Agency/Reuters
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Firefighters work at the site where a building collapsed in Hualien. Pic:Taiwan’s National Fire Agency/Reuters

Firefighters work at the site where a building collapsed following the earthquake, in Hualien, Taiwan.
Pic:Taiwan's National Fire Agency/Reuters
Image:
Firefighters work at the site of a collapsed building in Hualien.
Pic: Taiwan’s National Fire Agency/Reuters

The national legislature in Taipei, a converted school built before the Second World War, also had damage to walls and ceilings.

Schools evacuated their students to sports fields, equipping them with yellow safety helmets.

Some also covered themselves with textbooks to guard against falling objects as aftershocks continued.

Pic: TVBS
Image:
Pic: TVBS

Emily Feng, a correspondent with National Public Radio in Taiwan, told Sky News: “In Taipei my building has been swaying for the past couple of hours, there’s still aftershocks, the last one was just a few minutes ago.

“People are relatively used to earthquakes because Taiwan lies right on a major geographical fault line.

“There are earthquakes basically every month or so… this of course was a quake on a much larger scale.

“But people remained relatively calm because they are used to these sorts of natural disasters.”

She added that authorities are now looking at how to get aid into Hualien and also why an emergency alert system did not go off across the island.

Ms Feng added: “Some people got texts telling them the earthquake was coming. The majority of people, including myself, did not.

“Authorities are trying to figure out why that malfunctioned.”

Meanwhile, Taipei resident Hsien-hsuen Keng said: “Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake. I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”

She said her fifth-floor apartment shook so hard that “apart from earthquake drills in elementary school, this was the first time I had experienced such a situation”.

A view of a damaged apartment following an earthquake offshore, in New Taipei City, Taiwan April 3, 2024. REUTERS/Fabian Hamacher
Image:
A view of a damaged flat in Taiwan. Pic: Reuters

The earthquake led to a small tsunami in some coastal areas of Japan, but warnings were later lifted.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said his country stands ready to support Taiwan following the quake.

Japan’s meteorological agency described the earthquake as very shallow, which can cause greater damage.

The agency also said people “must be vigilant” for aftershocks, which could be of similar intensity for about a week.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said there has been no report of injury or damage in Japan.

He urged residents in the Okinawa region to stay on high ground until all tsunami advisories were lifted.

A view of a damaged apartment following an earthquake offshore, in New Taipei City, Taiwan April 3, 2024. REUTERS/Fabian Hamacher
Image:
Pic: Reuters

The Philippines Seismology Agency also issued urged residents in coastal areas of several provinces to evacuate to higher ground.

Chinese media confirmed the earthquake was felt in Shanghai and several provinces along China’s south-eastern coast.

China and Taiwan are about 100 miles apart. China issued no tsunami warnings for the Chinese mainland.

A view of a landslide after an earthquake hit just off the eastern coast of Taiwan, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration, in Xiulin, Hualien, Taiwan, April 3, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. Tutuloveeat/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
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A landslide occurred as a result of the earthquake in Taiwan. Pic: Tutuloveeat

Multiple aftershocks were felt in Taipei in the hour after the initial quake. The US Geological Society said one of the subsequent tremors was seven miles deep and had a magnitude of 6.5.

Taiwan lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a line of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

Taiwan’s worst quake in recent years struck in 1999, with a magnitude of 7.7, causing 2,400 deaths, injuring around 100,000 and destroying thousands of buildings.

In March 2011, a 9 magnitude earthquake was the strongest in Japan’s history – triggering a massive tsunami and the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

More on Cop29

Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

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US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

More on Russia

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

Read more from Sky News:
What are storm shadow missiles?
How bionic limps are helping Ukrainian troops

Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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