Strong quake hits Taipei, Japan issues evacuation alert
Japan has issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas of the southern prefecture of Okinawa after a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan.
Wednesday’s strong quake knocked out power in several parts of Taiwan’s capital Taipei, according to a Reuters witness.
Television showed buildings in the eastern city of Hualien shaken off their foundations. The island-wide train service was suspended as was the subway service in Taipei.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecast a tsunami of up to three metres for Japan’s southwestern coast.
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READ NOWA 30cm tsunami reached Yonaguni Island at 1118 AEDT, the JMA said.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.
On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude nine earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami. Those events triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.
with AP
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