TPW Desk:   An earthquake measuring 7.2 magnitude hit off Taiwan’s eastern coast at 7:58am (23:58 GMT) and was felt in the capital Taipei as well as in southern Japan, eastern China and the Philippines. At least nine people have been confirmed dead and more than 800 injured with the worst damage reported in the eastern city of Hualien and the mountainous countryside surrounding it. Dozens of people are trapped.

 Members of a rescue team search for survivors in a damaged building in Hualien [Handout via AFP]

Of the nine people confirmed dead so far, three were hikers who were killed in rockslides in Taroko National Park, which is in Hualien county.

Authorities said the three, who were part of a group of seven on an early-morning hike through the hills that surround the city, were crushed to death by boulders loosened by the earthquake, officials said.

Separately, the drivers of a truck and a car died when their vehicles were hit by tumbling boulders, while another man died at a mine.

Debris across a road in Hualien [Handout via AFP]

Taiwan is located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, the horseshoe-shaped line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

The area is particularly vulnerable to temblors due to the tension accumulated from the interactions of two tectonic plates, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate, which may lead to sudden releases in the form of earthquakes.

The region’s mountainous landscape can magnify the ground shaking, leading to landslides. Several such landslides occurred on Taiwan’s eastern coast near the epicentre of today’s quake close to Hualien County, when falling debris hit tunnels and highways, crushing vehicles and causing several deaths.

A printing company’s collapsed factory in New Taipei [Daniel Ceng/EPA]

The two Germans who had been trapped in a tunnel have been rescued, the German dpa news agency is quoting the fire brigade authorities as saying.

Latest earthquake figures

At least nine people are confirmed dead. Another 882 have been injured. More than 70 people remain trapped but are believed to be alive, including some in a coal mine. Fifty people on minibuses are missing after phone networks went down.

A collapsed building in New Taipei [Daniel Ceng/EPA]

Ferdinand Marcos Jr has expressed his country’s support to the people of Taiwan following the quake. In a post on X, the Philippine president also said his government was “diligently ensuring” the safety of the nearly 160,000 Filipinos residing in Taiwan. “We stand ready to assist and support our fellow Filipinos in Taiwan in any way possible during this difficult period,” he said.

Fifty people on minibuses heading to national park missing

Authorities say they have lost contact with 50 people travelling on four minibuses heading to a hotel in Taroko National Park, 25km (15 miles) north of Hualien, after the quake downed phone lines. Rescuers, meanwhile, were slowly evacuating people trapped in tunnels near the city, including two German nationals. “At present, the most important thing, the top priority, is to rescue people,” President-elect Lai Ching-te said, speaking outside one of the collapsed buildings in Hualien.