Strong earthquake injures 27 and causes scattered damage

In this image from a video, a store worker cleans the floor in Tainan, yesterday

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early yesterday, leaving 27 people with minor injuries and some reported damage.

The quake hit at 12:17 a.m. and was centered 38 kilometers southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10 kilometers, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the earthquake at a less powerful magnitude 6.

There were scattered reports of minor to moderate damage around the cities of Chiayi and Tainan.

Taiwan’s fire department said 27 people were sent to hospitals for minor injuries. Among them were six people, including a 1-month-old baby, who were rescued from a collapsed house in the Nanxi district of Tainan. The Zhuwei bridge on a provincial highway was reported to be damaged.

No deaths have been reported, though rescuers were still assessing damage.

Two people in Tainan and one person in Chiayi city were rescued without injuries after being trapped in elevators.

The quake caused a fire at a printing factory in Chiayi, but it was extinguished, and there were no reports of injuries.

Last April, a magnitude 7.4 quake hit the island’s mountainous eastern coast of Hualien, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 1,000 others. The strongest earthquake in 25 years was followed by hundreds of aftershocks.

Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. MDT/AP