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Earthquake rocks Taiwan

Update: 9:07 p.m.

Facebook has activated its "safety check" feature for Taiwan that allows users to let their friends and loved ones know they're safe.

Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a posting, "My thoughts are with everyone in Taiwan and across our global community affected by this disaster."

The link is available at https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/taiwanearthquake-feb02-2016


Update: 7:50 p.m.

Tainan city emergency centre says south Taiwan quake death toll rises to five.


Update: 5:45 p.m.

Authorities in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan say three people — including a 10-day-old — have been killed and 154 hospitalized following a shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake.

Firefighters and soldiers scrambled to the site of two collapsed residential high-rises with ladders, cranes and other equipment and pulled 221 people from the rubble.

Taiwan's official news agency says the infant and a 40-year-old man were pulled out of a 17-story Wei Guan residential building and were later declared dead.

The agency says 256 people were believed to have been living in 92 households.


A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Saturday, causing at least two buildings to collapse.

The Taiwanese news website ET Today reported that two buildings toppled in the southern city of Tainan and that some water and gas utility pipes had ruptured. Sirens were wailing as city authorities responded to the quake, the news website said.

The temblor struck about 4 a.m. local time. It was located 36 kilometres southeast of Yujing, and struck about 10 km underground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island. But Taipei was quiet, with no sense of emergency or obvious damage just before dawn.

About two hours after the tremor, Taiwanese television showed live images of a rescue at a partially collapsed building in Tainan. In it, rescue workers operating under the glare of floodlights combed through twisted concrete and metal and encountering people, apparently residents, who appeared dazed but uninjured.

Other footage showed people with their arms around firefighters being helped from the building, and cranes with cherry-pickers on the end being lowered into darkened parts of the structure to look around for survivors. Newscasters said other areas of the city were still being canvassed for possible damage.



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