earthquake - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Helicopter rescues Taiwan miners, stranded hotel guests confirmed safe

A helicopter plucked to safety six people stranded in a mining area after Taiwan's worst earthquake in 25 years, and rescue workers reached 400 people cut off in a hotel in a mountainous national park by air, and confirmed all were safe. Hundreds of aftershocks struck Taiwan's eastern region, driving scores to seek shelter outdoors, as the death toll from Wednesday's 7.2-magnitude quake rose to 10, with the tally of injured at 1,099, authorities said. A helicopter ferried to safety six miners trapped on a cliff in a dramatic rescue after the quake cut off the roads into Hualien's soaring mountains, in…

Apr

2024

By YIMOU LEE and FABIAN HAMACHER

Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years kills 9 people, 50 missing

WORLD

TAIWAN'S biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed nine people and injured more than 900, while 50 workers travelling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park were missing. Some buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) and triggered massive landslides. Linda Chen, 48, said her apartment in downtown Hualien city had been so badly damaged in an earlier earthquake in 2018 that they had to move house. But her new apartment block was…

Jan

2024

By KIYOSHI TAKENAKA and SAKURA MURAKAMI

Japan quake survivors face freezing rain, threat of landslides

WORLD

RESCUERS raced against the clock searching for survivors of an earthquake in western Japan that killed at least 65, while evacuees continued to wait for further aid amid freezing temperatures and heavy rain. The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck the Noto peninsula on New Year's Day, levelling houses and cutting off remote areas from aid. Heavy rain was forecast in the quake-hit areas on Wednesday, raising fears of landslides that could further hinder efforts to free many more people still trapped under rubble. Severed roads, damaged infrastructure, and the remote location of the hardest-hit areas have complicated rescue efforts.…

Dec

2023

By ALESSANDRO DIVIGGIANO, XIAOYU YIN AND LIZ LEE

A dozen still missing after China’s earthquake, 137 dead

WORLD

A dozen people were still missing after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Gansu province late Monday, and netizens questioned the speed at which rescue operations had ended. Chinese media reported that search-and-rescue work in Gansu ended at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, about 15 hours after the disaster hit a remote and mountainous area near the border straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces. It was not immediately clear whether the search in Qinghai was continuing. In Gansu, 115 people had been found dead as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT) and 784 were injured, authorities said. Gansu has not…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Earthquake of 7.5 strikes Philippines, tsunami expected in Philippines and Japan

WORLD

AN earthquake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao in the southern Philippines late on Saturday, triggering evacuation orders for some areas and southwestern Japanese coasts because of warnings of tsunami waves of a metre (3 feet) or more. The Philippine Seismology Agency Phivolcs said the waves could hit the Philippines by midnight (1600 GMT) and continue for hours. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said there could be waves of up to 3 metres above the tide level along some Philippine coasts. "Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised," Phivolcs said,…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s Johannesburg feels tremors after 5.0 magnitude quake

NEWS

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake shook South Africa's Johannesburg on Sunday morning, the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) said. The USGS said the earthquake occurred at 0038 GMT at a depth of 10 km (6 miles). Some Johannesburg residents reported feeling tremors. "Earth tremor in Johannesburg. Longest and strongest I have felt! Went on for about 30 seconds, it felt like," one resident wrote on Twitter. Security risk and crisis management consultancy Crisis24 said there were no reports of damage or casualties as a result of the earthquake. Source: U.S. Geological Survey Thomson Reuters Foundation

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Turkish undertaker’s family move to cemetery as he buries earthquake dead

WORLD

SUSANA VERA TASKED with burying hundreds of victims of Turkey's massive earthquakes, undertaker Ali Dogru brought his wife and four sons to live in an old bus by the cemetery where he works in the city of Iskenderun, so he could know they were safe. Last month's devastating earthquakes killed more than 54,000 people in Turkey and Syria and left millions homeless. Survivors are sheltering in tents, container homes, hotel resorts, university dormitories and even train carriages after hundreds of thousands of buildings collapsed and others were left unsafe. Shortly after the first earthquake struck on February 6, Ali, 46, moved his…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes Central Turkey region – EMSC

WORLD

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck Central Turkey on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said. The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), EMSC said. Thomson Reuters Foundation

Feb

2023

By NIR ELIAS and ALI KUCUKGOCMEN

Rescuers pull two survivors from rubble in Turkey 11 days after earthquake

WORLD

RESCUE teams pulled two people alive from under collapsed buildings in Turkey on Friday, 11 days after an earthquake that has killed more than 43,000, left millions homeless and sparked a huge relief effort. Mosques around the world performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the deadliest disaster in Turkey's modern history. While some international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, survivors were still emerging from under a multitude of flattened homes, defying all the odds. In Turkey's historic city of…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Rescues dwindle in Turkey after earthquake, giving way to grief and anger

WORLD

SUHAIB SALEM and ALI KUCUKGOCMEN A teenage girl was pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey more than 10 days after a devastating earthquake hit the region, but such rescues have become increasingly rare, leaving anger to smoulder as hope dies. The 17-year-old was extracted from the ruins of a collapsed apartment bloc in Turkey's southeastern Kahramanmaras province, broadcaster TRT Haber reported, 248 hours since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the dead of night on February 6. Footage showed her being carried away on a stretcher covered with a gold-coloured thermal blanket while an emergency worker held an intravenous…