Rescue workers discover more dead after earthquake in Taiwan
Published: Friday, Apr 5th 2024, 09:30
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After the worst earthquake in Taiwan for almost 25 years, rescue workers have found two more fatalities.
The two were found between huge rocks on a path in Taroko National Park in the hard-hit eastern Taiwanese county of Hualien, the fire department announced on Friday afternoon (local time). So far, the authorities have officially confirmed ten deaths.
According to the latest report, a further 1115 people were considered injured and hundreds were trapped in places cut off from the outside world. Many of them were stuck in a hotel in the national park, including one person from Switzerland.
The authorities began flying food, water and medicine there by helicopter on Friday and evacuating the first people from the area. More than a dozen people were still missing, including three citizens from Canada and Australia.
Hundreds of aftershocks
Landslides caused by the quake, which was 7.2 strong according to Taiwanese figures, made roads impassable. The city and the district of the same name, Hualien, were particularly badly affected. The epicenter of the quake was only a few kilometers out to sea. Since Wednesday, the Taiwanese weather authority has recorded more than 480 aftershocks. The director of the authority's seismological center, Wu Chien-fu, said on Friday that further strong aftershocks could not yet be ruled out.
Taiwan lies on the edge of two tectonic plates and is therefore an earthquake-prone area. In 1999, a magnitude 7.3 quake killed more than 2,400 people. Taiwan subsequently invested in earthquake prevention, spent more money on disaster education programs and expanded its observation stations for seismic activity.
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