At least six killed, 60 missing after quake rocks Taiwan tourist area

The magnitude 6.4 quake, which hit near the coastal city just before midnight on Tuesday, injured 243 people, officials said

Rescue and emergency workers block off a street where a building came off its foundation, the morning after a 6.4 magnitude quake hit the eastern Taiwanese city of Hualien, on February 7, 2018. Rescue workers scrambled to search for survivors in buildings left tilting precariously on their foundations. Paul Yang / AFP

A car sits crushed by a building which came off its foundation after a 6.4 magnitude quake hit the eastern Taiwanese city of Hualien. Paul Yang / AFP

Rescue workers check the quake site in Hualien. Paul Yang / AFP

Local residents stay outside their homes in Hualien after a strong 6.4-magnitude quake rocked eastern Taiwan early on February 7, 2018. Paul Yang / AFP

Rescue services search for people in a damaged building. TV reports said several buildings were damaged and at least two persons were killed and some 100 were injured during the quake. Ritchie B. Tongo / EPA

A damaged cement road after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Hualien on the night of 06 February 2018. The Seismological Observation Center said they are caused by the friction between the Philippines Plate and Eurasian Plate. Ritchie B. Tongo / EPA

Costumers escaped from the damaged Marshal Hotel sit outside. A hotel on the east coast of Taiwan has collapsed after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake, the government said. Yang Jen-Fu / AFP

A damaged building in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. Ritchie B. Tongo / EPA

Rescure workers search the damaged Marshal Hotel in Hualien. Paul Yang / AFP

Rescue services search for people in a damaged building in Hualien. Ritchie B. Tongo / EPA

Rescuers combed the rubble of collapsed buildings on Wednesday, in a search for about 60 people missing after a strong earthquake killed at least six near Taiwan's popular tourist city of Hualien.

The magnitude 6.4 quake, which hit near the coastal city just before midnight on Tuesday, also injured 258 people and collapsed four buildings, officials said.

Hualien Mayor Fu Kun-chi said the number of people missing was now close to 60, although an exact figure was not provided. As many as 150 were initially feared missing.

Many of those were believed to be still trapped inside buildings, some of which were tilting precariously, after the quake hit about 22 kilometres northeast of Hualien on Taiwan's east coast.

Two people were trapped inside a badly damaged hotel. The injured included mainland Chinese, Czech, Japanese, Singaporean and South Korean nationals.

Aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5.0 could rock the island in the next two weeks, the government said. Smaller tremors rattled nervous residents throughout the day.

Residents waited and watched anxiously as emergency workers dressed in fluorescent orange and red suits and wearing helmets searched for residents trapped in apartment blocks.

Hualien is home to about 100,000 people. Its streets were buckled by the force of the quake, with around 40,000 homes left without water and around 1,900 without power. Water supply had returned to nearly 5,000 homes by noon, while power was restored to around 1,700 households.

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Emergency workers surrounded a damaged residential building in the area. Windows had collapsed and the building was wedged into the ground at a 40-degree angle.

Rescuers worked their way around and through the building while residents looked on from behind cordoned-off roads. Others spoke of the panic when the earthquake struck.

"We were still open when it happened," said Lin Ching-wen, who operates a restaurant near a damaged military hospital.

"I grabbed my wife and children and we ran out and tried to rescue people," he said.

A video showed large cracks in the road, while police and emergency services tried to help anxious people roaming the streets. A car sat submerged in rubble as rescue workers combed through the ruins of a nearby building.

President Tsai Ing-wen went to the scene of the quake early on Wednesday to help direct rescue operations.

"The president has asked the cabinet and related ministries to immediately launch the 'disaster mechanism' and to work at the fastest rate on disaster relief work," Mr Tsai's office said in a statement.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker and major Apple supplier, said initial assessments indicated no impact from the earthquake.

Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers part of its territory, lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck nearby on Sunday.

More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, and some Taiwanese remain scarred by a 7.6 magnitude quake that was felt across the island and killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.