6.4-magnitude earthquake hits Taiwanese tourist city wrecking havoc

NewsBharati    07-Feb-2018
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Taipei, February 7: A strong earthquake of 6.4 magnitudes in Taiwan has killed has left two dead and 219 injured on the east coast of the country. After the earthquake struck the city of Hualien, roads are cracked, structures are tilted, and people are trapped amid a huge mess.

A hotel and a residential block were the worst hit among the structures. Marshal Hotel partly crumpled into the ground. Among other damaged buildings, there is a quake-hit hospital. Highways are racked as well as two bridges of the city are under unusable condition.

Emergency teams have rescued about 150 people from partly collapsed hotels and residential buildings. Over 100 people are believed to be trapped inside buildings. As an after effect of the quake, 40,000 homes are left without water and more than 600 without power.

The president has asked the cabinet and related ministries to immediately launch the 'disaster mechanism' and to work at the fastest rate on disaster relief work. Many people are on the streets and fearing aftershocks they are not going back to homes.

Taiwan is placed near a junction of two tectonic plates making it quake-prone. The quake follows almost 100 smaller tremors that have hit the area in the last three days. Co-incidentally, it has come on the second anniversary of a 6.4-magnitude tremor that killed 117 people.