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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.