Strong quake hits Taiwan, killing 3; 221 rescued from rubble

from a residential high-rise complex that
collapsed when a shallow 6.4-magnitude
earthquake struck before dawn Saturday, leaving
still others trapped inside.
Firefighters and soldiers scrambled with ladders,
cranes and other equipment to the building that
folded like an accordion in a pile of rubble and
twisted metal and extracted dazed survivors.
The emergency response center told The
Associated Press that three people were killed,
including a 10-day-old infant, a 55-year-old
woman and a 50-year-old man. Taiwan's official
news agency said the infant and the man were
pulled out of a 17-story Wei Guan residential
building and that both were later declared dead.
The agency said 256 people were believed to
have been living in 92 households.
Dozens more people have been rescued or safely
evacuated from a market and a seven-floor
building that was badly damaged, the Central
News Agency reported.
A bank building also careened, but no injuries
were reported, it said.
Most people were caught asleep when temblor
struck about 4 a.m. local time (2000 GMT
Friday). It was located some 22 miles (36
kilometers) southeast of Yujing, and struck about
6 miles (10 kilometers) underground, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.
As dawn broke, live Taiwanese TV showed
survivors being brought gingerly from the high-
rise, including an elderly woman in a neck brace
and others wrapped in blankets. The trappings of
daily life — a partially crushed air conditioner,
pieces of a metal balcony, windows — lay twisted
in rubble.
People with their arms around firefighters were
being helped from the building, and cranes were
being used to search darkened parts of the
structure for survivors. Newscasters said other
areas of the city were still being canvassed for
possible damage.
Men in camouflage, apparently military personnel,
marched into one area of collapse carrying large
shovels.
The Taiwanese news website ET Today reported
that a mother and a daughter were among the
survivors pulled from the Wei Guan building and
that the girl drank her urine while waiting for
rescue, which came sooner than expected.
The quake was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in
the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island.
But Taipei was quiet, with no sense of emergency
or obvious damage just before dawn.
Residents in mainland China also reported that
the tremor was felt there.
Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most
are minor and cause little or no damage.
However, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in central
Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.