Taiwan Shaken By Aftershocks
Survivors of a deadly earthquake in Taiwan sifted through the rubble of their wrecked homes to salvage personal effects and family mementos on Monday as aftershocks rippled across the island and triggered landslides.
Two moderate earthquakes, measuring 4.8 and 4.5 in magnitude were centered at sea about six miles off Ilan, a coastal town 90 miles southeast of Taipei, the capital, the Central Weather Bureau said. No injuries were reported in the landslides, police said.
Over 350 smaller aftershocks have been recorded since Sunday's earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, toppled buildings in the capital and killed five people and injured 272 others.
Two crane operators and three other construction workers were killed when two cranes plunged from the 60th-story of what will become one of the world's tallest buildings when it is completed in 2004.
The cranes brought steel beams and chunks of cement down as they fell, and debris injured about 10 people and smashed several cars.
Work on the 101-story, 1,666 feet Taipei Financial Center has been halted for safety checks. Authorities said the earthquake may have loosened the screws binding the cranes to a temporary steel structure.
Lo Rong-chien, chief prosecutor of the Taipei District Court, said authorities will determine whether the cranes fell because of negligence or violation of safety codes.
The government may have to further tighten quake-resistance standards at building sites, said Labor Council Chairwoman Chen Chu.
Elsewhere in the capital, residents of a five-story apartment building which was severely damaged in the earthquake were each given 20 minutes to search for valuables before excavators tore down the condemned structure.
One man pulled out his favorite cello from the rubble while a neighbor salvaged an ancestoral tablet and a property deed.
"They are the most important things to me," said the woman, who declined to be identified.
Sunday's quake injured a total of about 220 people across the island. An 8-year-old boy was in a coma after being hit in the head by a falling rock in the eastern coastal city of Hualien, but most other injuries were minor, the Disaster Control Center reported.
Taiwan lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin and earthquakes occur frequently. One of the worst recorded killed over 2,400 people in September 1999 and damaged 50,000 buildings.
Hundreds of aftershocks have been recorded since Sunday's quake -- some too slight to be felt, but others powerful enough to spark alarm.
"We could see aftershocks with a magnitude of around (Richter scale) five in the next two weeks," a Central Weather Bureau seismologist told Reuters.
The quake even prompted concern from arch-rival China, where the semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait sent a letter of sympathy, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
China considers Taiwan a wayward province to be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary.
The quake sent a brief tremor through Taiwan's financial markets when they opened on Monday, but share prices and the local currency stabilized in later trading.
The Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, at the heart of Taiwan's high-tech industry, said the earthquake did not particularly disrupt production.
Production lines at Taiwan's top contract chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics Corp were operating normally. Both firms reported minimal damage.
The delicate and intricate nature of semiconductor production means that runs are easily ruined by the slightest movement.
Semiconductor firms take anti-quake measures such as mounting their most sensitive equipment on platforms with giant springs to reduce the impact of any tremors.