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Taiwan earthquake: Second strong earthquake strikes near Taitung

Taiwan earthquake: Second strong earthquake strikes near Taitung
[Photo: Al-Jazeera]

A strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan, toppling at least one building and trapping two people inside and knocking part of a passenger train off its tracks at a station.

The 6.8 magnitude earthquake was the largest among dozens that have rattled the island's South-eastern coast since Saturday evening when a 6.4 quake struck the same area.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau says the epicentre was in the town of Chishang at a relatively shallow depth of seven kilometres.

The island's Central News Agency said, a three-story building with a 7-11 convenience store on the ground floor and residences on the upper floor, collapsed in nearby Yuli town.

Two people were rescued, and workers were in communication with two other trapped people.

Photos showed the top two stories sprawled across and onto the other side of a narrow street, with electricity wires pulled down by the building.

The Agency says police and firefighters rushed to a bridge collapse on a two-lane road in what appeared to be a rural part of Yuli where one or more vehicles may have fallen off.

It says a canopy on a platform at Dongli station in Fuli town, which is between Yuli and the quake's epicentre at Chishang, hit a train, leaving three of the cars tilted at an angle and the shaking was also felt at the north end Taipei.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for several southern Japanese islands near Taiwan but later lifted it.

NZ Herald

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