Taipei, April 3 (CNA) A magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Taiwan Wednesday has left four people dead and 57 injured, according to the latest figures compiled by the Central Emergency Operation Center.
The earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan and was felt by people around Taiwan.
Update
The Central Emergency Operation Center has updated the injury count from the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit Taiwan on Wednesday to 711 as of 2 pm, but the number of dead remains at four.
In Hualien alone, 44 people were injured, and all four deaths occurred there. One was the driver of a truck that was hit by falling rocks near the Daqingshui Tunnel on the Suhua Highway, and the other three were hikers hit by falling rocks on Dekalun Trail in Taroko National Park.
Elsewhere, seven people were injured in New Taipei, two were injured in Yilan County, and Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan and Taichung cities each reported an injury.
The earthquake and resulting landslides and rockslides on sections of the Suhua Highway near the Chongde and Daqingshui tunnels also damaged the highway’s roads, leading to road closures.
According to the Ministry of Transportation’s Highway Bureau, the section between Su’ao and Chongde along Provincial Highway No. 9 (the new Suhua Highway) and the section between Su’ao and Daqingshui along Provincial Highway No. 9D (the old Suhua Highway) have been closed.
Also closed is the section of Provincial Highway No. 8 between Dayuling and Taroko.
Several roads in Taroko National Park were also damaged, leaving many people unable to leave the park or get around.
(By Huang Li-yun, Chang Chi, Tsai Meng-yu and Elaine Hou)
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Tags: Hualien earthquake leaves dead injured
