Taiwan earthquake: hunt for people trapped in collapsed hotel after tremors leave four dead and hundreds injured

Chloe Chaplain22 October 2018

A major rescue mission is underway in Taiwan after a huge 6.4 magnitude earthquake left and least four people dead and more than 100 missing.

Crews worked through the night to free two people trapped in a hotel which collapsed following the tremors.

According to local news sites, the total death toll remains at four but more than 140 people are unaccounted for. Around 225 others were injured in the quake.

Rescue: Crews pull a dog from the buildings

An employee at the Marshal Hotel was killed after the ground floor totally caved in.

Rescue workers battled frantically to save two other employees trapped in the rubble, as their family waited nearby.

A maintenance worker who was rescued after being trapped in the building's basement said the force of the earthquake was unusual.

Speaking after he was reunited with his son and grandson, Chen Ming-hui said: "At first it wasn't that big ... we get this sort of thing all the time and it's really nothing. But then it got really terrifying. It was really scary."

Danger: Rescuers run out of a hotel during an aftershock
REUTERS

Other buildings shifted on their foundations and rescuers used ladders, ropes and cranes to get residents to safety.

Video footage and photos showed several buildings leaning at sharp angles, their lowest floors crushed into mangled heaps of concrete, shattered glass, bent iron beams and other debris.

The force of the tremor buckled roads and disrupted electricity and water supplies to thousands of households, the National Fire Agency said.

China has said it is "willing to send a rescue team to Taiwan" to help with relief efforts, due to a shortage of rescue workers in the disaster area and Japan's Foreign Ministry said nine Japanese were among the injured.

Collapsed: buildings were left tilted after foundations crumpled

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen moved to reassure the Taiwanese public that every effort would be made to look for survivors.

In a post on her official Facebook page, Tsai said she arrived in Hualien on Wednesday to review rescue efforts.

Tsai said she "ordered search and rescue workers not to give up on any opportunity to save people, while keeping their own safety in mind."

"This is when the Taiwanese people show their calm, resilience and love," she wrote. "The government will work with everyone to guard their homeland."

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