PHOTOS: 3 dead, 220 injured after Taiwan quake topples buildings

At least four people were killed Saturday morning when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan.

At least 224 people in the city were rescued from damaged structures, many from a 17-story residential building that collapsed in Tainan.

Two bodies were also recovered from the building, officials said.

Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported earlier that a 10-day-old girl and a 40-year-old man had been killed in Tainan.

The initial quake, which struck just before 4 am (local time), was very shallow, at depth of 10 km, which would have amplified its effects, the United States Geographical Survey said.

It was followed least five aftershocks of 3.8-magnitude or more, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. Any earthquake which measures above 6 on the Richter scale is considered strong, with the most severe recorded measuring at 8.9.

Rescue efforts appeared to be concentrating on the residential blocks in the Wei Guan area of the city, where some 221 people have been rescued so far, 154 needing hospitalisation, and two in critical condition. 

A 71-year-old, who gave his name as Chang, revealed he was watching television when the quake struck.

“I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom,” he said. “I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down.”

A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help.

“She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn’t go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn’t long enough so there was no way to save them.”

Liu Shih-chung, an official with the Tainan City Government, said the city had set up an emergency response centre as it tried to cope with the disaster.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

A strong 6.3-magnitude quake which hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides.

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island in September 1999 and killed around 2,400 people.