Maintenance crews began clearing the rubble from a southern
Taiwan town yesterday, hours after a powerful earthquake struck the
area, killing two and triggering a regional tsunami alert.
The quake, which hit late on Tuesday just offshore from the
Pingtung County township of Hengchun, came on the second
anniversary of the devastating tsunami that took more than 200,000
lives in southern and southeastern Asia.
Two members of one family were killed in the town when their
four-storey home collapsed. Six other members of the family were
rescued from under the rubble early yesterday.
A total of 42 people were injured in southern Taiwan, the
island's fire agency said in a statement. Three houses collapsed,
and 12 fires broke out. The power supply to 3,000 homes was
disrupted, but was later restored, according to the agency.
The US Geological Survey said the quake, which hit at 8:26 PM,
registered magnitude 7.1, while Taiwan's weather bureau measured it
at 6.7. It was followed 8 minutes later by an aftershock
registering 7.0, the USGS said.
Aftershocks of more than magnitude 5.0 were still likely within
a week, said Lu Pei-ling, a spokeswoman for the weather bureau.
The Chinese mainland yesterday expressed condolences to victims
of the earthquake, according to Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan
Affairs Office of the State Council.
Meanwhile, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across
the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) sent a letter to the Taiwan-based Strait
Exchange Foundation (SEF), expressing solicitude.
It conveys sympathy to the victims' families and all the people
affected. "We sincerely hope that people in earthquake-hit areas
could restore their normal life as early as possible," it said.
(China Daily December 28, 2006)