Rescue workers have found two more dead after the worst earthquake in Taiwan in almost 25 years. The two were found between huge rocks on a trail in Taroko National Park in hard-hit eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County, the fire department said. So far the authorities have officially confirmed ten deaths.
According to the latest report, another 1,115 people were reported injured and hundreds were trapped in isolated locations. Many of them were stuck in a hotel in the national park, including 18 Germans and one person from Switzerland.
Authorities began flying food, water and medicine there using helicopters and began evacuating people from the area. More than a dozen people were still missing, including three citizens from Canada and Australia.
Hundreds of aftershocks
Landslides caused by what Taiwan said was a 7.2-strong earthquake had made roads impassable. The city and the district of the same name, Hualien, were particularly badly affected. The epicenter of the quake was just a few kilometers away at sea. The Taiwan Meteorological Agency has recorded more than 480 aftershocks since Wednesday. The director of the agency’s seismological center, Wu Chien-fu, said further strong aftershocks could not yet be ruled out.
Taiwan lies on the edge of two tectonic plates and is therefore an earthquake-prone area. In 1999, more than 2,400 people died in a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. Taiwan then invested in earthquake prevention, spending more money on disaster education programs or expanding its seismic observation stations.
