{At least seven people confirmed dead after 17-storey building in the city of Tainan collapses, trapping scores.}<\/p>\n
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has hit southern Taiwan near the city of Tainan, causing at least seven deaths after a 17-storey building collapsed and trapped scores of residents.<\/p>\n
William Lai, Tainan’s mayor, speaking at the disaster site just hours after the quake shook the island early on Saturday, said that 221 people lived in the building.<\/p>\n
He said another 31 people had been sent to the hospital.<\/p>\n
A baby girl and a 40-year-old man were confirmed dead, according to a government official.<\/p>\n
Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to search the debris and carry more than 120 survivors to safety, with at least 26 taken to hospital, a fire brigade official said.<\/p>\n
One city hospital said 58 people had been brought in, most of them with light injuries.<\/p>\n
Images posted on social media showed a collapsed building and several people trying to rescue those who were trapped. Another building was also shown in a partially collapsed state.<\/p>\n
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake was centred 43km southeast of the city of nearly two million people.<\/p>\n
The quake was very shallow, at a depth of just 10km, which would have amplified its effects above the surface, the USGS said.<\/p>\n
At least five aftershocks of 3.8-magnitude or more shook Tainan about half an hour after the initial quake, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.<\/p>\n
A report in Taiwan’s China Post newspaper said: “Collapsed buildings reported in Tainan, with rescue workers arriving on scene.<\/p>\n
“The city government there has set up a level one emergency response centre. Onlookers are urged not to block access to emergency crews moving into the area.”<\/p>\n
Liu Shih-chung, an official for the Tainan city government, said authorities had set up an emergency response centre.<\/p>\n
Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou, speaking before leaving for the disaster scene, said authorities were not sure yet of the full extent of the disaster.<\/p>\n
“The disaster situation is not very clear yet. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure [survivors],” Ma said.<\/p>\n
The quake struck Taiwan as it was preparing for the annual Lunar New Year, a major public holiday.<\/p>\n
Taiwan lies in the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire – near the junction of two tectonic plates – and is regularly hit by earthquakes.<\/p>\n
In September 1999, a powerful quake also hit southern Taiwan, killing an estimated 2,400 people.<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera:[Deadly earthquake rocks southern Taiwan->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/02\/earthquake-measuring-64-hits-southern-taiwan-160205213442324.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{At least seven people confirmed dead after 17-storey building in the city of Tainan collapses, trapping scores.} A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has hit southern Taiwan near the city of Tainan, causing at least seven deaths after a 17-storey building collapsed and trapped scores of residents. William Lai, Tainan’s mayor, speaking at the disaster site just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071990,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23019.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23019"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23019"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}