Rescue teams in Taiwan scrambled to rescue dozens of people trapped in a highway tunnel on Wednesday after the country was hit by the strongest earthquake in 25 years, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 900.
A powerful tremor with a magnitude of 7.4 shook the island’s east coast, hitting 18 kilometers south of Hualien City at a depth of 34.8 kilometers at 7:05 a.m. (local time), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. Afterwards, several strong aftershocks occurred, and the shaking was felt across the island, including by CNN staff in the capital Taipei.
Since the first quake, there have been 29 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or greater near the epicenter, according to the USGS.
Of these aftershocks, one had a magnitude of 6.0 or greater, and 13 had a magnitude of 5.0 or greater.
Taiwan’s National Fire Protection Agency (NFA) said in an update on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to nine and 934 people were injured.
The NFA did not disclose the severity of the injury.
Meanwhile, 75 people stranded in various tunnels in Hualien County were rescued by emergency response forces. As of 7 a.m. ET, 137 people remained trapped.
Those trapped included 50 employees of the Silks Place Hotel Taroko, who were traveling in four minibuses. Authorities have not been able to contact them by phone and say they are being held captive for the time being.
The NFA added that two German nationals who were earlier caught in a tunnel in Hualien county were rescued.
All of the deaths were in Hualien County, the NFA said, including three hikers killed in a rockfall in the tourist hotspot Taroko Gorge. It added that a truck driver was also killed by falling rocks in front of the Suhua Expressway tunnel on the east coast.
Taiwanese officials said there were reports of extensive damage in Hualien County, with buildings collapsed, thousands of homes without power, and major highways closed due to landslides and falling rocks.
Most of those trapped are in two road tunnels in northern Hualien county, the NFA said. It has been announced that two German nationals are stuck in the third tunnel in the county.
The 400-meter-long Jinwen Tunnel, where 60 people are trapped, is one of more than a dozen tunnels that run along the Suhua Highway, a scenic but dangerous and narrow road that stretches 118 kilometers along the east coast.
Meanwhile, 12 people, including two Canadians, were stranded on the road in Taroko Gorge, and rescue teams were on their way to rescue them.
A spokesperson for Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau warned that strong aftershocks of around magnitude 7 are expected to occur through the weekend.
“It was a really strong shaking…I immediately turned off the gas and electricity and opened the door.
“It was really strong. It felt like my house was going to collapse,” Zhang Yu-lin, a resident of Taipei, told CNN affiliate Taiwan Plus.
“It was really wild,” said Chen Nianzi, who also lives in Taipei.
“It’s been a while since we had an earthquake, so it was really scary,” she told Taiwan Plus.
The quake triggered early tsunami warnings in Taiwan, southern Japan and the Philippines, waves less than half a meter were observed on some beaches, and airlines suspended operations. All tsunami warnings have since been lifted.
According to the Ministry of Defense, aftershocks caused Taiwanese troops to be dispatched to provide disaster relief, and schools and workplaces were suspended.
Outgoing Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that she had instructed her government to “immediately” “understand the situation and assess the local impact as soon as possible.” Tsai also called on the administration to “provide necessary support and work with local governments to minimize the impact of the disaster.”
Taiwan is a self-governing island east of mainland China, home to approximately 23 million people, most of whom live in industrial cities on the west coast, including the capital. The island is regularly hit by earthquakes, as it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, which runs along the edge of the Pacific Ocean and causes massive earthquakes and volcanic activity from Indonesia to Chile.
Wednesday’s earthquake was the strongest to hit Taiwan since 1999, according to the Central Weather Bureau. That year, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Taipei, killing 2,400 people and injuring 10,000 others.
Approximately 300,000 people live on the east coast of Hualien County, a sparsely populated island with some mountainous and remote areas. In 2018, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck near the area, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 300.