Strong earthquake rocks southeast Taiwan, no reports of damage

Taipei, September 17

A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook southeastern Taiwan on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of damage and no power outages.

The quake had a depth of 7.3 km with its epicentre in Taitung county, a sparsely populated part of the island, the Taiwan weather bureau said.

Taitung county commissioner April Yao wrote on her Facebook page the quake was “extremely strong”, while the official Central News Agency showed a picture of bottles that had been shaken off their shelves in a Taitung shop.

Taiwan’s fire department said it had yet to receive any reports of damage. State-run utility Taipower said there was no interruption to electricity supply on Taiwan’s east coast.

The quake could be felt across Taiwan, the weather bureau said. Buildings shook briefly in the capital Taipei.

The science parks in the southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung, home to major semiconductor factories, said there was also no impact on operations.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes.

More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999. Reuters