Taipei (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A strong earthquake struck central Taiwan last night, causing the death of one person and injuring 19 people. The quake - with a magnitude of 6.1 degrees - had its epicenter at 48 km from Nantou, in the center of the island, and was a little more than 20 km deep. The earthquake was clearly felt in the capital Taipei (about 250 km), where the buildings shook for some time. The victim is a woman of 72 years from Nantou.
According to the National Meteorological Agency, this was the most violent earthquake since the beginning of the year and was felt all over the island followed by five aftershocks (of magnitudes varying between 3.7 and 4, 3) over a 2 hour period. According to firefighters, the wounded were located in Nantou County and in neighboring Changhua and Taichung. There was also fear in Hong Kong, where at least 10 people called the Observatory for natural disasters to report feeling the quake.
The Taiwanese Set TV channel showed pictures of a woman being taken away by an ambulance after being wounded in the head by a piece of ceiling. The quake also caused a fire, which was immediately extinguished. The Taipei subway was immediately halted and all the high-speed trains in the country gift were stopped, ahead of a railway line inspection.
Taiwan has the sad record of the greatest concentration of natural disasters in Asia. For an average 60% of the year it is affected by typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis - albeit at very low. The same area of Nantou was the epicenter of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in September 1999 that caused 2400 deaths: the worst natural disaster in recent history of the island.