Taiwan earthquake: Death toll rises to 10 as island rocked by over 300 ‘terrifying’ aftershocks – live updates

Watch live as rescue efforts continue today (4 April) in Hualien following a deadly earthquake that has killed nine people and left thousands injured.

Taiwan on Thursday condemned China as “shameless” after Beijing’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations thanked the world for its concern about a strong earthquake on the island.

China claims the self-governed island as its own territory and also claims the right to speak for it on the international stage.

China is concerned about the damage and has expressed condolences to Taiwan and offered aid, said Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, according to a transcript of his remarks.

“We thank the international community for its expressions of sympathy and concern,” he added.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry expressed anger at the remarks.

The ministry “solemnly condemns China’s shameless use of the Taiwan earthquake to conduct cognitive operations internationally”, it said, using Taiwan’s normal term for what it views as Chinese psychological warfare.

Taiwan’s weather administration has recorded more than 300 aftershocks from Wednesday morning into Thursday.

The aftershocks have forced many people on the island to sleep in tents outside their houses or in emergency shelters.

Hendri Sutrisno, a 30-year-old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa University, spent Wednesday night in a tent with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.

“We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. And then we’re staying here ever since to assess the situation,” he told the Associated Press.

“I’m afraid of aftershocks, and I don’t know how bad the shaking will be,” a 52-year-old Hualien resident, who gave her family name as Yu, told Reuters.

“The aftershocks were terrifying. It’s non-stop. I do not dare to sleep in the house,” she said.

At least 10 people have now been confirmed dead after the powerful earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday.

Of the 10 dead, at least four were killed inside Taroko National Park, a Hualien county tourist attraction famous for canyons and cliffs about 150km from capital Taipei.

One person was found dead in a damaged building and another was found in the Ho Ren Quarry.

Authorities today retrieved another body from a trail.

Two Canadian nationals were among the hikers rescued on Wednesday evening from the Taroko Gorge’s Shakadang trail in Taiwan.

The hikers, identified as a 29-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman, were a part of a 14-member group hiking on trail when a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the island.

Twelve people from the group made their way out to the trailhead, but two remaining hikers required a lengthy search and rescue, TaiwanNews reported.

About 690 people were either still trapped or out of contact on Thursday in Taiwan, including over 600 who were stranded inside a hotel called Silks Place Taroko, the National Fire Agency said. Authorities said the employees and guests at the hotel were safe and work to repair the roads to the facility was close to completion.

Others who were reported to be trapped, including two dozen tourists and six university students, were safe too, they said.

Authorities also said some 60 workers, who had been unable to leave a quarry due to blocked and damaged roads, were freed. Central News Agency said all of them got off the mountain safely around noon.

Six workers from another quarry were airlifted out.

Around 40 people, mostly hotel employees earlier reported to be in the national park, were still out of contact with authorities.

Taiwan’s SETTV captured the moment when the magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit live as a female presenter described strong shaking while trying to keep her balance.

The powerful earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday was captured by the cameras in a newsroom during a live broadcast.

As the quake hit, anchors on air kept speaking and delivering news while the studio was visibly shaking.

A coal mine worker said the strong earthquake in Taiwan unleashed powerful landslides with rocks falling “like bullets”.

A 7.4 magnitude quake on Wednesday set off at least nine landslides and debris came down from hillsides onto Hualien’s Suhua Highway, which runs down the east coast.

Some people stranded in tunnels and near a national park were airlifted to safety on Wednesday, but at least 50 others remain missing.

“The mountain started raining rocks like bullets, we had nowhere to escape to, everyone ran beside the sandbags for cover,” the survivor, identified by his family name Chu, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Ocean Tsai, a resident of Hualien City, recalled: “I was just getting out of bed when a clothes rack and a low cabinet fell over.”

She told BBC: “It kept getting stronger, and I started worrying about our belongings at home. Fortunately, apart from the motorcycle tipping over, the damage was minimal.”

Watch a live view of Taipei after a deadly earthquake rocked the entire island early, collapsing buildings and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands.

At least 50 people remain missing after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan’s east coast on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

Rescue efforts are focused in Hualien city, from where most of the casualties and damage have been reported.