Disastrous impact: The Full Hotel building in Hualien, which had been previously damaged in the April 3 earthquake, tilting further to one side after a series of earthquakes overnight. — AFP
A CLUSTER of earthquakes struck the island republic of Taiwan, the strongest having a magnitude of 6.1, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
There were no reports of casualties in the quakes early yesterday, although there were further damages to two multi-storey buildings that had been evacuated following a magnitude 7.4 quake that hit the island earlier this month, killing 13 people and injuring over 1,000.
That earthquake was centred along the coast of the rural and mountainous Hualien county.
It was the strongest earthquake in the past 25 years in Taiwan and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. Yesterday’s quakes are considered the latest of those.
According to the USGS, yesterday’s quake of 6.1 magnitude had its epicentre 28km south of the city of Hualien, at a dept of 10.7km. The half-dozen other quakes ranged from magnitude 4.5 to magnitude 6, all near Hualien.
Taiwan’s own earthquake monitoring centre put the magnitudes of the initial quake at 6.3. Such small discrepancies are common between monitoring stations.
The largest among them were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 that occurred at 2.26am and 2.32am local time, respectively, according to the Taiwan centre.
Numerous of the scores of aftershocks could be felt on the upper floors of a apartment buildings in the capital Taipei, about 150km across steep mountains to the northwest.
The Full Hotel in downtown Hualien partially collapsed during the quakes and was left leaning at a severe angle. However, it had been undergoing renovations and was unoccupied at the time.
The nearby Tong Shuai Building was also empty, having been marked for demolition after being heavily damaged in the April 3 quake.
Schools and offices in Hualien and the surrounding county were ordered closed yesterday as hundreds of aftershocks continued to strike on land and just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean, the vast majority below magnitude 3.
Authorities advised anyone whose home had been damaged in the last quake to move out until the aftershocks subsided, and some decided to wait in their cars. — AP
