Steph Deschamps / April 25, 2024
The island of Taiwan was struck at dawn on Tuesday by a new earthquake, of magnitude 6, announced its meteorological agency, after recording several tremors on Monday. The earthquake struck at 2:26 a.m.
A series of tremors struck Taiwan on Monday afternoon, the strongest at 17:08 having a magnitude of 5.9, according to the Taiwanese meteorological agency. On April 3, this region was the epicenter of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that killed at least 17 people and injured more than 1,100 on the island.
According to the US Geophysical Survey (USGC), it was of magnitude 5.3, with a depth of 8.9 kilometers. "It felt like one of the strongest earthquakes or aftershocks since the big quake earlier this month," said an AFP employee. The Hualien Fire Department said on its official social networking account that it had sent teams to report on any damage caused by the earthquake.
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes because the island lies close to the junction of two tectonic plates. The April 3 quake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks that caused landslides around Hualien. It was the most severe since the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck the island in September 1999 and killed 2,400 people, the worst disaster in Taiwan's modern history. Stricter anti-seismic regulations appear to have averted a major catastrophe this time.