Albania quake kills 21

Media and residents stand on a collapsed building after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Thumane, western Albania, Tuesday. Rescue crews with excavators searched for survivors trapped in toppled apartment buildings and hotels Tuesday as the death toll from a powerful pre-dawn earthquake in Albania climbed to 21, with more than 600 people injured. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Strong 6.4 earthquake hits Indonesia's Sumatra: USGS

JAKARTA - A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the Indonesian island Sumatra on Sunday but there was no tsunami risk, seismologists said as panicked residents fled their homes.

The quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometers (22 miles) at 10:08 am (0308 GMT) 73 kilometers west of Bengkulu, according to the United States Geological Survey.

"The earthquake was quite strong and shallow, it was felt all the way to Padang, West Sumatra, but there was no threat of a tsunami," Mochammad Riyadi, an official at Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency told AFP.


He said officials were checking if there were any casualties or damage.

Bengkulu resident Neng Hasnah said the quake felt very strong for a few seconds, forcing her and her family members to flee her house.

"I was carrying my seven-month old granddaughter and I had to run, all the neighbours also ran outside their homes," Hasnah told AFP.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

An earthquake struck Indonesia's western Aceh province in December 2016, killing more than 100 people, injuring many more and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

More pulled out alive after Taiwan quake

TAINAN, Taiwan -- Rescuers pulled more survivors from a collapsed apartment tower in Taiwan on Sunday and kept searching for about 120 people still believed trapped in the rubble a day after a strong earthquake shook the island.

Those found alive include a 20-year-old identified by Taiwan media as Huang Kuang-wei and another man in his 20s surnamed Kuo, who was able to walk out of the wreckage, supported by rescuers. Both were sent to hospital.

Firefighters, police, soldiers and volunteers combed through the ruins, some using their hands, watched anxiously by dozens of the victims' family members who wore thick jackets, woollen hats and scarves to combat the winter chill.

Medical staff with empty gurneys waited nearby.

"She's not answering my phone calls ... I am trying to hold my emotions and stay strong. I'll do that until I find her," said a woman surnamed Chang, 42, waiting to hear from her 24-year-old daughter who lived on the fifth floor of the complex.

Another lady, who gave her family name as Li, said she thought a friend she met at a Buddhism class two years ago lived in the collapsed building.

She has her cellphone number but has not called it, Li said.

"I'm afraid to. I'm afraid I'll cry," she told Reuters.

At least 26 people are known to have died in the quake, which struck at about 4 a.m. on Saturday, at the beginning of a Lunar New Year holiday, with most found in the collapsed Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in the southern city of Tainan.

Around 120 people are still beneath the rubble of the commercial-residential block, with most them trapped deep in the wreckage, the government said.

Bodies continue to be found, including those of two sisters, aged 18 and 23, Taiwanese media reported.

The building's lower floors pancaked on top of each other in the 6.4 magnitude quake and then the whole structure toppled, raising immediate questions about the quality of materials and workmanship used in its construction in the 1990s.

President Ma Ying-jeou is scheduled to visit the disaster zone on Monday, the first day of the Lunar New Year. Tsai Ing-wen, elected president in elections last month, will also visit Tainan the same day.

Questions

Tainan Mayor William Lai told reporters about 120 people are believed still missing in the debris, with efforts focusing on some 30 people who are closest to the rescuers and lighter equipment like drills being used.

The extent of damage to the Golden Dragon Building has raised questions.

Liu Shih-chung, Tainan city government deputy secretary general, said television footage of its ruins suggested the possibility of structural problems related to poor-quality reinforced steel and cement.

However, city officials have said it is too early to say for certain if poor construction was a factor in the collapse.

Authorities said the building had 96 apartments and 256 registered residents, though more people were inside when it collapsed.

Rescuers wearing red and yellow overalls have pulled more than 240 survivors from the ruins and inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete as they searched for additional survivors.

Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Eleven dead after powerful Taiwan quake fells buildings

TAINAN, Taiwan - A powerful earthquake in Taiwan felled a 16-storey apartment complex full of families who had gathered for Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday, with at least eleven dead and more than 30 feared trapped.

The death toll was rising in the historic city of Tainan, which bore the brunt of the 6.4-magnitude quake, as rescuers scoured rubble for survivors.

An entire residential complex of four buildings containing almost 100 homes toppled, left on its side with twisted metal girders exposed and clouds of dust rising from the jumbled concrete.

Among the nine people killed when the apartment complex collapsed were a 10-day old baby girl and two other children, the National Fire Agency said.

The other two victims were killed in different parts of the city by falling debris, the agency said.

Officials say they are unsure how many residents may still be inside, but media reports estimated at least 30 could be trapped.

Around 800 troops have been mobilised to help the rescue effort, with sniffer dogs also searching through the rubble.

Residents at the felled 16-storey Wei-kuan Building told of their terror as the quake hit, with survivors pulled bleeding and crying from the ruins, some just in their underwear.

"I saw buildings shake up and down and left and right," said one resident.

"The first and second floor just collapsed," he told local channel SET TV.

Another man tied his clothes together to create a rope and lowered himself from his home on the ninth floor to the sixth floor below, Apple Daily reported.

One woman told how she had fought her way out of her home.

"I used a hammer to break the door of my home which was twisted and locked, and managed to climb out," she told SET TV, weeping as she spoke.

Rescuers have freed more than 250 people from the apartment complex, with over 40 of them hospitalised.

Interior minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared there may be more people in the building than usual as family members would have returned to celebrate the Lunar New Year holidays next week.

"We are concerned that most members of those families may have returned for the coming new year holiday," he said.

Heartfelt appeals for the missing were posted on social media.

"My friend in Wei-kuan is currently missing. His brother is waiting at the scene and other relatives are at the hospital looking among those injured. If anyone has related news, please get in touch," one user called applexgreen posted on Taiwan's popular PTT forum.

Another named Ahan asked for information on a family of three with a two-year-old son who lived on the seventh floor of the building.

"My mother is the child's nanny. We haven't been able to get in contact," the post said.

DAZED AND EXHAUSTED

Officials said there were 256 people registered as living in the complex, which contained 96 apartments.

Dazed and exhausted residents stood outside the toppled buildings, watching rescue workers free survivors -- from infants to the elderly, some strapped to stretchers -- and carefully hand them down ladders.

Cranes towered over the disaster zone with diggers trying to move slabs of concrete.

Eight shelters have been set up around the city, with over 100 people taking refuge there, while restaurants and hotels offered free food and rooms to residents.

"The buildings collapsed, but Tainan will stand again! Please treat here like your temporary home, rest well and freshen up. You aren't alone," said one Tainan hotel called Adagio Travel on its Facebook page.

Separately, at least 30 people were earlier freed from another residential seven-storey tower.

Officials said several blocks had collapsed or half collapsed in other parts of the city, with some buildings left leaning at alarming angles.

Across Tainan, more than 400 people were injured, with over 60 hospitalised.

Around 400,000 had been left without water, authorities said, and more than 2,000 homes are still without electricity.

China has offered rescue assistance if needed, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) at around 4:00 am (2000 GMT Friday), 39 kilometres northeast of Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second-largest city.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

The island's worst quake in recent decades was 7.6 magnitude in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Earthquake of 6.4 magnitude strikes in east Indonesia - USGS

JAKARTA - An earthquake of 6.4 magnitude struck on Wednesday near Indonesia's Moluccas islands, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the islands in the east of the archipelago.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com