Taiwan: Rescuers search for 690 people still trapped or out of contact after earthquake
About 690 people were either still trapped or out of contact on Thursday, after Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years hit, as Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports
Rescuers are still searching for hundreds of people still unaccounted for a day after Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years damaged buildings, caused rockslides and killed ten people.
In the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicenter, workers used an excavator to stabilise the base of the damaged Uranus Building, tilted on its side, with construction materials.
Mayor Hsu Chen-wei previously said 48 residential buildings had been damaged, some of which were tilting at precarious angles with their ground floors crushed.
Nearly 1,070 people were injured in the quake that struck on Wednesday morning.
Watch the moment the earthquake struck as neonatal nurses rushed to protect newborn babies at a hospital in Taipei City
Of the 10 dead, at least four were killed inside Taroko National Park, a Hualien County tourist attraction famous for canyons and cliffs.
One person was found dead in the Uranus Building and another was found in the Ho Ren Quarry.
About 690 people were either still trapped or out of contact on Thursday, including over 600 who were stranded inside a hotel called Silks Place Taroko, the National Fire Agency said.
Authorities said the employees and guests at the hotel were safe and work to repair the roads to the facility was close to completion.
Others who were reported to be trapped, including two dozen tourists and six university students, were safe too, they said.
Authorities also said some 60 workers, who had been unable to leave a quarry due to blocked and damaged roads, were freed.
Central News Agency said all of them got off the mountain safely around noon. Six workers from another quarry were airlifted out.
Initially described as "the 50 missing on minibuses", 42 hotel workers are still trapped in a tunnel.
Authorities are working to open the road to rescue them but they are safe, and supplies have been dropped to the group, who were captured on drone footage.
Some Hualien residents were still staying in tents, but much of the island's day-to-day life was returning to normal.
Hendri Sutrisno, a 30-year-old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa University, spent Wednesday night in a tent with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.
"We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet," he said.
"And then we're staying here ever since to assess the situation."
Others also said they did not dare to go home because the walls of their apartments were cracked and they lived on higher floors.
Taiwanese Primer Chen Chien-jen visited some earthquake evacuees in the morning at a temporary shelter.
For hours after the quake, local television showed neighbours and rescue workers lifting residents through windows and onto the street from damaged buildings where the shaking had jammed doors shut.
The quake and its aftershocks caused landslides and damaged roads, bridges and tunnels, while the national legislature and sections of Taipei's main airport suffered minor damage.
The quake was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years.
Local authorities measured the initial quake's strength as 7.2 magnitude, while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.4.
Huang Shiao-en was in his apartment when the quake struck. "At first the building was swinging side to side, and then it shook up and down," Mr Huang said.
The Central Weather Administration has recorded more than 300 aftershocks from Wednesday morning into Thursday.
Taiwan is regularly jolted by earthquakes and its population is well-prepared for them. The country also has stringent construction requirements to ensure buildings are quake-resistant.
The economic losses caused by the quake are still unclear.
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