TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Saturday, toppling a complex of two high-rise residential buildings where rescuers pulled out more than 160 people. More are still believed to be trapped inside.
Firefighters scrambled to the sites with ladders, cranes and other equipment and pulled survivors from the buildings that were lying on one side of the road in the southern city of Tainan, footage from local TV broadcasters showed.
Among the survivors, Taiwan’s official news agency said a 10-day-old infant and a 40-year-old man were found in critical conditions when they were pulled out of a 17-story Wei Guan residential building. So far, 127 people were pulled from the rubble, and at least 29 were injured.
The Central News Agency said that about 200 people are believed to have been living inside in about 60 households.
Rescuers also pulled out 34 people from another Wei Guan high-rise, which had 16 floors and housed 150 families. The road where the building is located had gas leaks and water pipe ruptures, the news agency said.
Several other buildings are also collapsed or partially damaged.
As dawn broke, live Taiwanese TV showed survivors being brought gingerly from the building, 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 what appeared to be nearby 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 uniforms, apparently military personnel, marched into one area of collapse carrying large shovels. Aerial images of at least two different buildings showed what appeared to be significant devastation. It was unclear if both were residential structures.
The Taiwanese news website ET Today reported that two buildings toppled in Tainan, and that some water and gas utility pipes had ruptured. Sirens were wailing as city authorities responded to the quake.
It said a mother and a daughter were among the 34 people pulled from one of the Wei Guan buildings and that the girl drank her urine while waiting for rescue, which came sooner than expected. It said the building could have 300 to 400 people at the time of the quake.
The 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.
It 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.
Associated Press writers Didi Tang and Ian Mader in Beijing contributed to this report.