Taiwan: Scores of people trapped in tunnels and under rubble – after biggest earthquake in 25 years
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Taiwan’s strongest quake since 1999
Firefighters work at the site where a building collapsed in Hualien. Pic:Taiwan’s National Fire Agency/Reuters
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
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 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.
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 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.
World
‘It allows us to do our job’: Ukrainian artillery team buoyed by fresh ammunition after costly wait on frontline
Sat in a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of a frontline town in eastern Ukraine, the soldier – callsign “Zaur” – shared some rare, good news: new ammunition appeared to be arriving.
He did not know the precise details but said fresh supplies started to be delivered about a week or two earlier.
This was making a difference for his artillery team as they fought to defend Chasiv Yar from advancing Russian forces.
Follow latest: Missiles launched at Crimea
“It allows us to do our job, to hold off Russian soldiers, to restrain them, and also to destroy them when they attempt counterattacks,” Zaur said.
Ukrainian troops have been losing ground in the Donbas and now face a reopened front in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as they run short of ammunition and weapons following delays in the delivery of munitions from their allies, in particular the United States.
Even though American weapons are finally arriving to the frontline, the wait has been costly.
Zaur described the fight for Chasiv Yar, which has long been a Russian target. “It’s pretty intense. There are battles every day,” he said.
Should the hilltop town fall, it would give the invaders access to higher ground, enabling them to target artillery fire onto a wider area and putting cities in the remaining parts of the Donbas that are still under Ukrainian control at greater risk.
Asked whether Ukraine would manage to fend off the Chasiv Yar attack, the soldier, who commands the artillery unit, said: “We’ll try to hold on as much as possible, and time will tell…
“We’ll try our best… to do what’s necessary to survive.”
A Sky News team was shown around the artillery position under the cover of patchy woodland, next to some grassy mounds. Booms could be heard from distant fighting.
In a sign of the battle moving closer, soldiers had just finished digging a deep, narrow trench, which ran from the already-sheltered location of their self-propelled artillery gun – a 2S1 Gvozdika that fires 122mm rounds.
The trench had taken three days to dig. It had only been finished on the day we visited the area last week and – the soldiers said – had already been used to shelter from incoming rounds.
Russian troops have been trying to push into Chasiv Yar for the past year after seizing the nearby city of Bakhmut.
In recent weeks, though, they appear to have been edging closer – with a Ukrainian military medical stabilisation point forced to pull back to a city called Kostiantynivka.
Read more:
‘This is just the first wave’: Drones reveal new attack
Putin seizes chance as Ukraine waits for weapons
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russian soldiers advance in Ukrainian drone footage
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
As we looked at the artillery site, there was suddenly an ominous sound.
A powerful rocket – I was not able to see it – was flying overhead.
Over a radio held by a soldier, a voice could be heard saying: “It was coming straight at us, then veered towards a five-storey building. It flew low, damn it.”
Within minutes, we became aware of another danger – a drone.
One of the troops said he thought it was a Ukrainian drone but from our position, it seemed impossible to be sure.
We were told that the commander thought it best for us to leave.
As we walked – quickly – across some open ground between two patches of tree cover, one of the Sky News team thought they could hear a self-exploding attack drone in flight.
Again, it was not possible to know for sure what was making the noise, but then came the sound of an explosion, though the impact site was not in the immediate vicinity.
In a final reminder of the battle, as we headed towards our vehicle, it was possible to see a black dot hovering above the trees – yet another drone.
A woman who has accused the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann of rape has described being attacked in her hotel room by a man holding a knife.
In emotional testimony on Wednesday, a woman recounted how a man dressed in black allegedly appeared in her hotel room in Portugal and raped her.
Christian B – whose surname cannot be published due to privacy laws in Germany – is accused of attacking the woman.
He also faces two other counts of rape and two of sexual abuse in his ongoing trial in Braunschweig.
The allegations do not relate to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Speaking in court, the woman described the moment she realised there was a man she did not recognise in her hotel room in the middle of the night.
“I felt a fear that I had never feared before, all the blood drained from my head,” she said.
“I turned to see who called my name, saw a man dressed fully in black, with a knife.”
She had been staying in Praia la Rocha, just along the Portuguese coast from Praia da Luz where Madeleine disappeared from three years later.
During the woman’s testimony, Christian B sat motionless next to his lawyer, staring straight ahead.
The woman described being raped by her attacker who then left her tied up, before escaping out via the balcony.
The police were called and she was taken to hospital by ambulance.
“Only occasionally did they (the police) quickly ask something in English. They didn’t pay much attention to me. I was not in a good headspace,” she told the trial.
Gerry, left, and Kate McCann, present a picture of their missing daughter during a press conference in Berlin in 2007. Pic: AP
Read more:
Madeleine’s parents mark 17 years since disappearance
Witness in Madeleine investigation ‘dying from cancer’
Other charges facing Christian B include:
- Beating and sexually assaulting a girl aged at least 14 sometime between December 2000 and April 2006 at his house in Praia da Luz, Portugal
- Exposing himself to a 10-year-old German girl at a beach in Salema in the district of Faro in Portugal on 7 April 2007
- Exposing himself to an 11-year-old Portuguese girl at a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines in Portugal on 11 June 2017
Earlier in the trial, Christian B’s lawyer said the defendant “is using his right to remain silent”.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system, and defendants are not obliged to respond to the charges.
Christian B is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old in Praia da Luz, the same town where Madeleine disappeared.
World
France prisoner escape: Day of blockades in French prisons as inmate called ‘The Fly’ on the run
A suspected drug boss nicknamed “The Fly” is at the centre of police manhunt after escaping from a prison van in France.
Two prison officers were killed and three others seriously wounded when a convoy transporting prisoner Mohamed Amra from court to jail was ambushed at a motorway tollbooth near Rouen in Normandy by gunmen wearing balaclavas.
Mohamed Amra
Several hundred police officers have been deployed nationwide to find the 30-year-old convict and gunmen. It is unclear how many assailants were involved.
CCTV footage showed a black Peugeot SUV driving into the front of a white van, with other video showing at least two armed men carrying rifles circling the car in flames on the A154 motorway.
French media reports suggested a second car used during the attack was a Sedan – stolen in the town of Pontault-Combault in northern France – which had been following the convoy and together with the SUV trapped the prison van.
The two cars were later found torched a few miles away.
A day of blockades dubbed “Dead Prisons Day” has been announced in jails across France today as prison officer unions respond in anger to Tuesday’s attack.
Local media on Wednesday reported demonstrations outside of prisons across the country – including in the French capital Paris, Rouen, Nice, Grasse, Draguignan and Amiens.
Wooden pallets are set on fire as prison staff block the entrance of a detention centre in Val De Reuil, France. Pic: Reuters
In Yvelines 130 people blocked a remand centre and set fire to wooden pallets, Le Parisien reported.
Inside, around 15 prison staff went about their everyday jobs – compared with the 40 usually onsite.
In addition, the day’s prisoner transportations and visits were cancelled, according to the newspaper.
Hubert Gratraud, a union representative, said: “There is an awareness of the dangerousness.
“We need resources and training. We need to get as close as possible to the reality on the ground: anything can happen.”
“People were shot at point-blank range, it was a massacre, a butchery,” said Ronan Roudaut, another union official.
A minute’s silence is also planned across the French criminal justice system including prisons and courtrooms at 11am.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘Assassination attempt’
Police sources said Amra was involved in international drug dealing, a suspect in a kidnap and murder case in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had recently been sentenced to 18 months for burglary in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, reported BFM TV.
The French broadcaster said his nickname was La Mouche – or “The Fly” in English.
A prison source told Le Parisien that Amra tried to saw the bars off his cell a few days ago – with the convict reportedly put in solitary confinement afterwards.
The publication said he is suspected of having ordered an assassination attempt, linked to drugs, targeting a Frenchman in Spain in the summer of 2023.
It added Amra, born in Rouen in northern France, was also re-evaluated as ‘Escort 3’ risk category, making more guards necessary during transportation.
Read more: Who is ‘The Fly’?
Dangerous fugitive’s mum speaks
His mother told French radio network RTL she had no idea her son had planned an escape.
“I went to Baumettes to see him, he was in solitary confinement, I went to [the prison of] Evreux once. He spoke normally, he didn’t show me anything. I don’t understand,” she said.
“They carry him around from right to left, they put him in solitary confinement instead of judging him once and for all.”
She said she “broke down” and “cried” when she found out what had happened.
“It makes me sick. How can lives be taken like that?” she said of the two fatalities.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his head, he’s not talking to me. He’s my son and he doesn’t talk to me about anything,” she added.
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said two of the injured officers were in a critical condition.
“Absolutely everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” he told BFM TV.
“These are people for whom life means nothing. They will be arrested, judged and punished according to the crime they committed.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment12 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports1 month agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports7 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company