Hong Kong considers making buildings quake-resistant

Shanghai has them. So does New York. And so, too, do France, Germany, Australia and South Korea. Hong Kong, where the risk of earthquakes is similar to all these places, doesn't.

But last week the government took the first step towards bringing in laws requiring new buildings to be built to withstand quakes.

And not before time, say academics and engineers, who point to recent significant seismic activity, which showed even areas at low risk from earthquakes can experience major tremors.

In April, two big earthquakes occurred beneath the Indian Ocean, far from the usual danger zones. The quakes triggered 11 aftershocks that measured 5.5 or greater in the six days that followed, including one as big as magnitude seven.

Remote shocks were felt 10,000 to 20,000 kilometres away, halfway round the globe.

"It was jaw-dropping," Dr Thorne Lay, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz, said. "It was like nothing we'd ever seen."