Taiwan: Severe earthquake off the coast – tsunami warning from authorities | EUROtoday

As of: 3:40 a.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

SSevere earthquakes have precipitated harm to quite a few buildings within the East Asian island republic of Taiwan. The Taiwanese and Japanese authorities issued tsunami warnings following the tremors on Wednesday morning (native time). Taiwan's meteorological company recorded a magnitude 7.2 quake on the southeastern coast of Hualien Island at a depth of 15.5 kilometers. The United States Earthquake Observatory (USGS) reported a magnitude of seven.4 within the space.

According to native media reviews, buildings in Hualien have been partly badly broken by the violent tremors. Photos confirmed how a multi-story home collapsed and have become tilted. According to eyewitnesses, the quake was additionally clearly felt within the Taiwanese capital Taipei. Public rail transport has been suspended in a number of massive cities on the island with greater than 23 million inhabitants. Express prepare providers have been additionally interrupted.

In Japan, the tremor off Taiwan triggered a warning of a three-meter-high tsunami for close by islands within the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. Residents of the affected islands have been known as upon to hunt security.

The final time Taiwan was hit was in September 1999 by a magnitude 7.3 quake. At that point, greater than 2,400 individuals died. Taiwan lies in an earthquake-prone zone on the boundary of the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Sea plate.