APRIL 20, 2015
One man died and another was hospitalised Monday after a
fire caused by a powerful quake off Taiwan that set buildings shaking in the
capital Taipei and sparked a short-lived tsunami warning in far southwestern
Japan.
Japanese forecasters had warned the 6.6 magnitude earthquake
could cause a tsunami as high as one metre (three feet) affecting several
islands in the Okinawa chain. But they lifted the alert around an hour later,
with no abnormal waves recorded.
No damage was reported in Japan, but a four-storey apartment
building in New Taipei City caught fire after an electrical box outside the
block exploded in the quake.
A 65-year-old man who lived in the building "showed no
signs of life" at the scene, the fire service said.
Another 18-year-old resident remains in hospital with smoke
inhalation but is not in a serious condition, the fire service said.
Residents and office workers were evacuated from a building
in central Taipei because of a feared gas leak and vehicles in a nearby
multi-storey carpark were overturned, but no one was injured.
Three more quakes rocked the island in the evening. The
Seismology Center said one with a magnitude of 5.8 and another at 5.7 -- both
considered to be aftershocks -- shook buildings in Taipei.
Another quake with a magnitude of 5.5, with its epicenter 42
km (27 miles) east of the eastern city of Hualien, also jolted the island. This
was not seen as an aftershock.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
In Japan, local authorities urged people to move away from
the coast and seek higher ground, in a drill that has become fairly regular in
a country prone to powerful earthquakes and occasional devastating tsunamis.
"We are issuing warnings via the radio," Satoshi
Shimoji of the Miyako City government told NHK. "We want residents to get
as far as possible from the sea."
Boats were seen sailing out to sea -- common practice when a
tsunami warning is issued because away from the coast a tsunami is little
different from a swell.
However, an hour after the quake, the Japan Meteorological
Agency cancelled the warning.
The US Geological Survey said the 6.6 magnitude quake, which
Japanese authorities had originally put at 6.8, struck 71 kilometres (44 miles)
east of Hualien at 0143 GMT.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told
reporters officials were still collecting information, but that the quake did
not appear to have done serious damage.
Japan sits at the confluence of four of the earth's tectonic
plates and records more than 20 percent of the planet's most powerful
earthquakes every year.
Strict building codes and a long familiarity with the
dangers mean quakes that might cause devastation in other parts of the world
are frequently uneventful in Japan.
However, more than 18,000 people were killed by a huge
tsunami that smashed into the northeast coast in 2011 after a huge 9.0
magnitude earthquake.
Kuo Kai-wen, chief of Taiwan's Seismology Centre, warned
there could be more quakes on the island.
"This was the third quake measuring more than 6.0
magnitude in Taiwan so far this year -- we would not rule out the likelihood
that there might be more strong quakes of this scale." It is also a possibility of a really
catastrophic earthquake hitting the region this year.