Strong Taiwan quake kills one, injures 86

A strong earthquake killed one person and injured at least 86 others in Taiwan on Wednesday as violent shock waves damaged buildings and triggered a blaze, emergency officials said.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.0 and said it struck at 10.03am, 48 kilometres east of Nantou county in central Taiwan at a depth of 20.7 kilometres.

Taiwan’s central weather bureau put the magnitude at 6.1, saying it was the largest quake this year and was felt across the island. Five aftershocks measured from 3.7-4.3 in magnitude occurred in two hours after the main tremor, it said.

The national fire agency said a 72-year-old woman at a temple in Nantou was struck by a wall that crumbled during the quake and died on the spot.

Eighty-six others were slightly injured in the same county and the nearby Changhua and Taichung counties.

The quake also triggered a fire in a house in Nantou that injured one person and had since been extinguished, it said.