Taiwan earthquake: Four killed, 200 injured as 6.4 magnitude tremors hit port city of Hualien

Rescue workers scrambled to search for survivors in buildings left tilting precariously on their foundations in the Taiwanese city of Hualien on Wednesday, after an overnight earthquake killed four and injured more than 200. Reuters

Authorities said they could not verify how many residents were still missing after the 6.4-magnitude quake which hit the popular tourist city late on Tuesday. Rescue efforts were focused early Wednesday on the Yun Tsui residential building, which also housed a restaurant, shops and a hostel. The quake left the 12-storey building leaning to one side, its lower floors pancaked. Reuters

Four mobile cranes had been brought in on the back of trucks to help prop up the structure. Five more buildings including a hospital and a hotel were also damaged in the city, where roads were ripped apart and strewn with rubble. Reuters

The quake hit just before midnight (1550 GMT) around 21 kilometres northeast of Hualien, according to the United States Geological Survey. It followed almost 100 smaller tremors to have hit the area in the last three days and comes exactly two years since a quake of the same magnitude struck the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, killing more than 100 people. Reuters