Time is counted. Rescuers are stepping up their efforts on Thursday April 4 in Taiwan to free dozens of people stuck in road tunnels after a powerful earthquake the day before which destroyed roads and caused numerous landslides on the island.
At least nine people were killed and 1,050 injured, according to a new report from the authorities, in the 7.4 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, the most powerful to hit the island in 25 years.
Many residents of the worst-hit city of Hualien on the island's east coast spent the night outside, fleeing apartments still shaken by numerous aftershocks while major work was underway to repair roads. damaged and consolidate dangerously tilted buildings.
Trapped in tunnels
A spectacular video released by the island's rescue operations center shows a helicopter extracting six miners trapped in a gypsum quarry near Hualien, not far from the epicenter located at sea.
Rescuers located dozens of other people trapped in a network of tunnels built in this area of mountains and cliffs, usually popular with tourists.
The authorities are in contact with 101 people stuck in these tunnels or isolated areas, but cannot communicate with 46 other people, whom they nevertheless consider safe.
"I hope we can use the time we have today to find all the stranded or missing people and help them recover," Prime Minister Chen Chien-jen said Thursday after a briefing at a health center. relief in Hualien.
The island has been rocked by more than 300 aftershocks since Wednesday's first quake, and the government has warned people of landslides and rockfalls.
Rescue workers help a survivor after he was rescued from a damaged building in New Taipei City, April 3, 2024. © Central Taiwan News Agency (CNA), AFP
Night in tent
In Hualien, a glass building leaning 45 degrees after half of its first floor collapsed became an iconic image of the quake.
“When the earthquake happened, we immediately evacuated the guests (...) and asked them to leave,” Wang Zhong-chang, 55, owner of a nearby hotel, told AFP.
"I stayed in this area, I didn't leave. There's not much to fear. I've experienced it before (...) but this time it was worse".
More than a hundred people in the town slept in tents set up near a primary school on Wednesday evening, as aftershocks continued.
“We are afraid that it will be very difficult for us to evacuate again, especially with the baby, when the big aftershocks occur,” said Hendri Sutrisno, 30, an Indonesian professor at Donghua University.
Along with his wife and baby, they hid under a table when the earthquake struck, before fleeing their apartment. “We have everything we need, blankets, toilets and a place to rest,” he assures.
Earthquake in Taiwan. © Nicholas Shearman, AFP
Social media was flooded with spectacular videos and images of the earthquake from all over the island. In one clip, a man is seen struggling to get out of a rooftop swimming pool amid strong waves caused by the shaking.
Situated on the boundary of several tectonic plates, Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes, but strict building regulations and good preparation for natural disasters appear to have avoided a major catastrophe on the island.
In September 1999, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killed 2,400 people, the worst disaster in Taiwan's modern history.
With AFP
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