Chipmaker TSMC stated it had evacuated workers at its factories in central and southern Taiwan, and so they had been all protected.
The quake shook buildings within the capital, Taipei. The quake had a depth of 9.4 km (6 miles) with its epicenter in Dapu township in Chiayi county, and hit shortly after midnight, the climate administration stated.
The hearth division stated a handful of individuals had been trapped in broken buildings within the metropolis of Tainan, and a few had already been rescued.
The Chiayi hearth division additionally stated there have been no reviews of main casualties to date within the metropolis, whereas an official in Dapu, who gave his household identify as Chi, instructed Reuters energy cuts had been reported in some villages and a few buildings had been broken.
The Dapu hearth division instructed Reuters there have been no “apparent indicators of catastrophe.”
The science park in Tainan, residence to main factories together with of TSMC, stated buildings had been evacuated.
Taiwan lies close to the junction of two tectonic plates and is liable to earthquakes. In 1906, the Meishan earthquake close to Chiayi killed greater than 1,200 individuals.
Taiwan’s final main earthquake was in April, a 7.2 magnitude temblor that hit the east coast county of Hualien, killing 13 individuals.
Greater than 100 individuals had been killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016 and a 7.3 magnitude quake killed greater than 2,000 individuals in 1999.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Yimou Lee and Wen-Yee Lee; enhancing by Christina Fincher, Mark Potter and Barbara Lewis)
