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The president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wenthis Wednesday asked the population to remain calm and take extreme precautions against possible aftershocks from the earthquake 7.2 degrees that hit the island’s coast this morning.
Tsai indicated in a post on her official Facebook account that her Executive is assessing the situation and has given orders to provide the necessary assistance and work with local governments on emergency efforts.
LOOK HERE: LIVE | Earthquake in Taiwan leaves at least one dead, 50 injured and buildings collapse
He also noted that the Army will collaborate with the administrations of the affected areas to provide support and that the Taiwan Disaster Response Center is already mobilized.
Both Tsai and the president-elect and current vice president, William Lai (Lai Ching-te) appealed to citizens to avoid using elevators as much as possible, and also asked that extreme precautions be taken when using candles or other types of fire to avoid fires.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred at 7:58 am on Wednesday (23:58 GMT on Tuesday), was located at sea, 25 kilometers southeast of the municipality of Hualien (east), with a depth of 15.5 kilometers, and caused a tsunami warning on the island, according Taiwan Central Meteorological Agency.
So far, no casualties have been reported, although considerable material damage has occurred, especially in Hualien, where at least one residential building partially collapsed.
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The director of the AMC Earthquake Monitoring Center, Wu Jianfustated in a press conference that it is the biggest earthquake suffered by Taiwan in the last 25 years, since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that on September 21, 1999 caused the death of 2,416 people.
Furthermore, the official warned of the possibility of replicas between 6.5 and 7 degrees of the earthquake occurring in the coming days, whose magnitude was 7.2 according to the Taiwan Central Meteorological Agency and 7.4 according to the United States Geological Survey.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
