A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck just to the northeast of the city of Hualien in Taiwan late on Tuesday, causing a hotel to collapse and forcing the closure of a nearby highway, the Taiwanese government said.
The quake struck about 20 kilometres northeast of the city shortly before midnight local time, and the epicentre was very shallow, at a depth of just under 10 kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
An official from the interior ministry’s fire station division told Reuters by phone that people were trapped in buildings in Hualien.
The government said a bridge in the city on Taiwan’s eastern coast could not be used, and the structure of an inn had tilted during the earthquake.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported that the ground floor of the Marshal Hotel, a building in Hualien district, had caved in and people were believed to be trapped inside. The agency posted photos showing a road fractured in several parts.
Several buildings in Hualien were tilting or caved in, according to the Central News Agency.
The agency quoted a spokesman of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, the governing cabinet’s office, as saying that search teams from other areas were headed to Hualien.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck in the same area on Sunday night, but there were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
“The president (Tsai Ing-wen) has asked the cabinet and related ministries to immediately launch the ‘disaster mechanism’ and to work at the fastest rate on disaster relief work,” the president’s office said in a statement after Tuesday’s earthquake.