Hit by strongest quake in 25 years

Leaning tower: A damaged building in Hualien after the powerful quake. — AFP

THE biggest earthquake in Taiwan in at least 25 years killed nine people, injuring more than 800, while 50 went missing en route to a national park, authorities said, as rescuers used ladders to bring others to safety.

Television broadcast images of buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2-magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8am yesterday.