Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed nine people on Wednesday, injuring more than 900, while 50 hotel workers were missing en route to a national park, authorities said, as rescuers used ladders to bring others to safety.
Television broadcast images of buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a. m.
“It was very strong. It felt as if the house was going to topple,” said Chang Yu-lin, 60, a worker in a hospital in Taipei, the capital.
A woman who runs bed-and-breakfast accommodation in Hualien city said she scrambled to calm her guests who were frightened by the quake.
“This is the biggest earthquake I have ever experienced,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her family name, Chan.
