(Reuters) — After hours of searching for quake survivors amongst the rubble of a 17-storey collapsed building in southern Taiwan, five people were still missing on Saturday (February 6) as darkness fell.
A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Tainan at around 4 a.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT Friday, February 5), the start of a Lunar New Year holiday.
At least eight people were killed.
Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed but rescue efforts were focused on the apartment block, where six of the dead were found.
A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
