Strong quake hits Taipei, Japan issues evacuation alert

Japan has issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas of the southern prefecture of Okinawa after a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan.

Wednesday’s strong quake knocked out power in several parts of Taiwan’s capital Taipei, according to a Reuters witness.

Television showed buildings in the eastern city of Hualien shaken off their foundations. The island-wide train service was suspended as was the subway service in Taipei.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecast a tsunami of up to three metres for Japan’s southwestern coast.

A 30cm tsunami reached Yonaguni Island at 1118 AEDT, the JMA said.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.

On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude nine earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami. Those events triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.

with AP