Hualien earthquakes leave 2 buildings partially collapsed, no injuries

Hualien, April 23 (CNA) Two buildings in Hualien City partially collapsed and tilted after a string of earthquakes hit eastern Taiwan early Tuesday, including two temblors of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3.

Full Hotel (富凱大飯店) on Zhongshan Road and Tong Shuai building (統帥大樓) on Mingli Road in downtown Hualien City partially collapsed following the quakes, but there were no reports of anyone trapped in the buildings, according to local authorities.

Full Hotel was currently undergoing renovation when the earthquakes struck, while the unoccupied Tong Shuai building had already been marked for demolition following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Hualien on April 3, authorities said.

Both buildings have been cordoned off.

Teng Zeu-yu (鄧子榆), head of the Hualien Economic Affairs Department, told reporters that the city government had asked all residents living in buildings flagged for demolition to evacuate their homes due to safety concerns, as more aftershocks could hit the city.

A total of 93 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08 pm Monday to 6:10 am Tuesday, with 23 of them exceeding a magnitude of 5.

The largest among them were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 that occurred at 2:26 am and 2:32 am Tuesday, respectively.

Wu Chien-fu (吳健富), director of the Central Weather Administration’s Seismological Center, said Monday that the series of earthquakes were aftershocks of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that rocked Taiwan on April 3 and left at least 17 people dead.