Taiwan: Strong earthquake kills 1, strands 400 tours and derails train on island

A strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan on Sunday, toppling a three-story building and temporarily trapping four people inside, stranding about 400 tours on a mountainside, and knocking part of a passenger train off its tracks.
One person died and nine people had minor injuries, Taiwan’s Emergency Operations Center said.
The magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest among dozens that have rattled the island’s southeastern coast since Saturday evening, when a 6.4 quake struck the same area. Most of the damage appeared to be north of the epicenter, which Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said was in the town of Chishang at the relatively shallow depth of 7 kilometres.
In near Yuli town, a cement factory worker died and the three-story building, which had a 7-11 convenience store on the ground floor and residences above it, collapsed, the island’s Central News Agency said. The 70-year-old owner of the building and his wife were rescued first, but it took longer to get to a 39-year-old woman and her 5-year-old daughter.
A photo released the Hualien city government showed the girl lying on a blanket and being handed down a metal ladder from the top of the debris helmeted rescue workers in orange uniforms. The top two stories of the building were left sprawled across a small street and onto the other side, with electricity wires pulled down the fallen structure.

Strong quakes shook Taiwan over the weekend, with the ground in some places slipping as much as 3-5 ft.
Amid a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in eastern Taiwan on Sunday, the collapse of the ceiling in a sports center was caught on camera. #Taiwan #earthquake pic.twitter.com/A2SZ1N3LIW
— The Weather Channel India (@weatherindia) September 19, 2022
More than 7,000 households were reported without power in Yuli, and water pipes were also damaged. Shelves and musical instruments fell over at the Mount Carmel Presterian Church and a long crack ran down its floor. Outside, the pavement was broken into slabs of concrete. Police and firefighters rushed to a bridge collapse on a two-lane road in what appeared to be a rural part of the same town where three people and one or more vehicles may have fallen off, according to media reports.
Also in Yuli, a landslide trapped nearly 400 tours on a mountain famous for the orange day lilies that blanket its slopes this time of year, the Central News Agency said. They had no electricity and a weak cellphone signal.
Debris from a falling canopy on a platform at Dongli station in Fuli town, which is between Yuli and the epicenter at Chishang, hit a passing train, derailing six cars, the Central News Agency said, citing the railway adminration. None of the 20 passengers were injured.
The shaking was felt at the north end of the island in the capital, Taipei. In Taoyuan city, west of Taipei and 210 kilometres north of the epicenter, a man was injured a ceiling collapse on the 5th floor of a sports center.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for several southern Japanese islands near Taiwan, but later lifted it.