Taiwan rescuers rush to reach stranded victims after quake

Taiwan’s emergency response units worked for a second day to reach hundreds of miners, hotel staff and tourists who were stranded by debris and road closures more than a day after the island was struck by its biggest earthquake in 25 years.

With most damage from Wednesday’s 7.4-magnitude quake located near the epicenter on Taiwan’s eastern side, rescue efforts focused on people cut off in the higher elevation terrain around greater Hualien, home to a popular national park and Taiwan’s cement mines.

The government on Thursday raised the death toll from the temblor to 10 people, with 1,067 injured. Emergency personnel on Thursday afternoon said 660 people had been “trapped” as a result of the earthquake, a figure that includes hundreds of people stranded because of damaged roads.

Rescue teams say they are working to clear blocked roads and collapsed tunnels by Thursday evening.

The total cost of the damage hasn’t been calculated. Yet even as rescue efforts proceeded, Taiwan’s high-tech economy went into recovery mode, with its semiconductor industry resuming most operations that had been paused when the quake hit Wednesday morning and employees were evacuated.

Building codes and regulations revised after a 1999 earthquake that killed more than 2,400 people appear to have helped keep damage and casualties relatively low.

Several world leaders expressed their concern about the impact of the quake and extended offers of aid. But in a sign that political tensions with China remain high, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council rejected an offer of assistance from Beijing – which considers the self-governing island part of its territory.