Taiwan earthquake: People trapped in the building
Taiwan earthquake: People trapped in the building
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New Delhi [India], Feb 7: Rescue workers pulled survivors and bodies from buildings tilting precariously in the Taiwanese city of Hualien on Wednesday, after an overnight earthquake killed at least five people, injured more than 200 and left dozens missing.

Emergency responders were focusing on a 12-storey apartment block and a nearby hotel, both of which were leaning dangerously after their lower floors pancaked when the 6.4-magnitude quake hit the popular tourist city late on Tuesday. Rescuers are working to reach five people they know are trapped in buildings, while more than 140 are unaccounted for.

The worst hit was a military hospital which rescuers have propped up with cranes as it leans at about 45 degrees. One local resident who lives nearby told that how he watched the tower block partially collapse. "I saw the first floor sink into the ground. Then it sank and tilted further and the fourth floor became the first floor," said Lu Chih-son,, who saw 20 people rescued from the building. "My family were unhurt but a neighbour was injured in their head and is bleeding. We dare not go back home now. There are many aftershocks and we are worried the house is damaged,"

A hotel employee died after the bottom three floors of the Marshal Hotel caved in while another person died in a residential building.

 

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