Off southwestern Taiwan yesterday a powerful earthquake struck triggering a tsunami warning on the second anniversary of the waves that killed more than 200,000 in southern Asia.

 

Two hours later, seismologists lifted the warning, saying the threat of destructive waves had passed.

 

Taiwan media reported one person was killed and three injured in the southern city of Pingtung when their four-storey home collapsed. Four other members of the family were trapped in the rubble but firefighters eventually freed them and many streets in the city were cracked and a major bridge was damaged, reports said.

 

The US Geological Survey said the quake, which hit at 8:26 PM registered 7.1, while Taiwan's central weather bureau measured it at 6.7. It was followed eight minutes later by an aftershock registering 7.0, the USGS said.

 

Yesterday's quake was felt throughout Taiwan Province. It swayed buildings and knocked objects off the shelves in the capital, Taipei, in the northern part of the island.

 

Phone lines were cut in the southern cities of Kaohsiung and Pingtung, possibly hindering reports of damage by residents the CTI Cable News reported. Several high-rise hotels swayed violently in Kaohsiung, it said.

 

The tremor was centered at sea about 23 kilometers southwest of Hengchun on the southern tip of Taiwan, the bureau said. Hengchun is about 450 kilometres south of Taipei.

 

Quakes frequently shake the island of Taiwan, which is part of the Pacific's ‘Ring of Fire,’ which is an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. Most are minor and cause little or no damage.

 

On Wednesday Chinese mainland official also conveyed condolences to victims in the earthquakes occurred late Tuesday in the coastal areas near Pingtung County in southern Taiwan.

 

Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council conveyed condolences to the earthquake victims in Taiwan and expressed solicitude to families and relatives of the victims at a regular press conference.

 

Meanwhile, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), expressing solicitude to Taiwanese who suffer severe earthquake disaster.

 

The letter says: "we are distressed to learn that earthquakes occurred from late Tuesday to early Wednesday in the coastal water near Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, have killed two, injured dozens and caused severe economic losses."

 

"Mainland is greatly concerned about Taiwan's earthquake disaster situation and entrusts ARATS to convey condolences to the victims and deep sympathy to their families and all the people affected. We sincerely hope that people in earthquake-hit areas could overcome the disaster and restore normal life as early as possible," the letter reads.

 

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 27, 2006)