The toll in Tuesday’s earthquake in Taiwan rose to 10 on Thursday, Taiwan News reported. At least 59 people are still missing, while more than 260 people were injured.
Two days after the earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan, rescuers pulled out more bodies and continued searching badly damaged buildings looking for dozens of people still missing.
The earthquake struck an area around 21 km northeast of Hualien city, according to the United States Geological Survey and was followed by several aftershocks.
Most of the people who are yet to be accounted for could be trapped in the 12-storey Yun Men Tsui Ti building, The New York Times reported. The building had a small hotel, apartments and a restaurant, and so far, at least 196 people were rescued from this and three other buildings, the report said.
Many buildings collapsed or were damaged in the earthquake, leaving people homeless. At least 800 people slept in shelters – the Hualien Gymnasium and the Chunghwa Primary School – on Wednesday night, according to The New York Times.
Taiwan lies near where two tectonic plates meet and is often struck by earthquakes. Tuesday night’s earthquake came after five shallow tremors struck off the east coast of the island nation on Sunday, within hours of each other.
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