Strong earthquake rocks Taiwan, leaving 14 dead and 150 missing
A 17-storey apartment building collapsed in Tainan City's Yungkang district. It was said to be home to about 250 people in 96 households, according to the Central Emergency Operation Centre.
Several other buildings in Tainan collapsed or were damaged by the quake, which struck at 3:57 am (1937 GMT Friday).
A Central Emergency Operation Centre official said 12 people, including a 10-day-old baby girl, were killed in the collapsed apartment building.
Li Wei-sen also said a 56-year-old woman was killed in another district of Tainan by a water tank that toppled from the roof of a building. In the same district, a 43-year-old man died of serious injures after he got hurt from falling steel racks in a warehouse.
The emergency centre said more than 480 injured people were taken to hospitals in southern Taiwan. As of late Saturday, more than 150 people remain missing, according to the centre.
Emergency crews worked in the darkness to rescue people trapped in rubble. A city official said 16 buildings in Tainan were collapsed or seriously damaged.
Several people, who had been trapped under a collapsed building in Yungkang district for more than 16 hours, were rescued late Saturday, state-run Central News Agency reported.
Lai Ching-te, mayor of Tainan, said the search will continue through the night for residents of the building who were reported missing.
"It was horrible. I was so scared and jumped up from my bed immediately," 46-year-old Carol Chen, a Tainan resident who lives near the collapsed high-rise, said by phone.
Chen ran out of her building and saw many neighbours who all looked terrified, she said.
"I feel the quake was even more terrible than the big one I've experienced in 1999," Chen said.
The high-speed rail service was suspended in the southern region due to the earthquake.
The quake occurred just ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations.
President Ma Ying-jeou visited disaster areas in Tainan. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered to help with the rescue and relief efforts. A Japanese rescue team is expected to arrive in southern Taiwan late Saturday.
In addition, the European Union, the United States, Singapore, Israel, France, Honduras and Nicaragua also expressed their willingness to offer assistance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
More than 3,900 emergency crews, which include 500 firefighters, 2,500 police officers, 800 soldiers and others, have engaged in the rescue action in Tainan with the assistance of 23 rescue dogs and some advanced life detection systems.
In September 1999, Taiwan was hit by a magnitude-7.3 earthquake, which left more than 2,400 people dead.
