Two quakes rattle Taiwan, undersea cable damaged

TAIPEI, Sep 7 (Reuters) Two strong earthquakes rattled Taiwan's capital and the north of the island today, disrupting communications though no casualties or serious damage were reported.

Last December, a series of earthquakes off Taiwan damaged eight undersea cables, knocking millions of Internet users offline and disrupting banking services from Seoul to Sydney.

The US Geological Survey measured the magnitude of the first quake at 6.5 at 01:51 a.m. local time (2121 hrs IST). Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said the second tremor followed four minutes later with a magnitude of 5.7.

The Central Weather Bureau said the epicentre of the first quake was 76 km southeast of the island and 27 km deep, and the second one about 10 km farther away. It measured the first quake at magnitude 6.6 and the second at 5.7.

Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's top telecommunications carrier, said an undersea cable to Japan was damaged and was under repair.

"All communications are more or less back to normal," a Chunghwa spokeswoman said.

Taiwan's disaster centre said they had no reports of casualties.

Earthquakes are common in Taiwan but do not often cause serious damage. The worst in recent years was in 1999, when at least 2,000 people died in a quake measuring 7.6 in central Taiwan.

Reuters ARB DB1021