Strong quake hits Taiwan, causes minor damage

aipei, Apr 1: A strong earthquake rocked Taiwan today, shaking office buildings but causing only minor damage, officials said.

The epicentre of the 6.4 magnitude quake, which struck after 6 p.m. (1530 IST) was east of Taitung on the eastern coast, at a depth of 10 km, the Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.

Television footage showed a collapsed wall outside a military base in the southern county of Kaohsiung, but nobody was hurt.

Some phone lines were cut off in the eastern part of the island.

Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin.

One of Taiwan's worst-recorded quakes occurred in September 1999.

Measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, it killed more than 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged 50,000 buildings.

REUTERS