Recovery and cleanup operations were ongoing on Monday (September 19) after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of Taiwan on Sunday (September 18), derailing train carriages and causing a convenience store to collapse.
The weather bureau said the epicenter was in Taitung County and followed a 6.4 magnitude temblor on Saturday (September 17) evening in the same area, which caused no casualties. Taiwan’s fire department said one person had died and 146 were injured by the quake on Sunday.
Excavators and sledgehammers were chipping through the rubble of a collapsed convenience store building in Yuli, after all four people that were trapped inside had been rescued the night before. Three people whose vehicles fell off a damaged bridge were rescued and taken to hospital.
The quake could be felt across Taiwan, the weather bureau said. Buildings shook briefly in the capital Taipei, and aftershocks have continued to jolt the island.
