Taiwan says Thursday's quake unrelated to quakes in Haiti or Chile

Mar 5, 2010, 7:28 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan said Friday that Thursday's magnitude-6.4 earthquake, which injured nearly 100 people, is unrelated to the quakes in Haiti and Chile.

'So far, we have not found out which fault triggered the quake, but there is no evidence it is related to the quakes that hit Haiti and Chile,' said Tsai Chun-hsiuang, deputy director of the Seismological Centre.

The quake hit Kaohsiung County, causing widespread damage because its epicentre was only 5 kilometres underground.

The quakes caused many houses to crack or crumble, triggered fires in several factories and caused a high-speed train to derail although the passengers were not injured.

A total of 559 schools was damaged with two needing to be rebuilt, Education Minister Wu Ching-chi said.

Thursday's quake caused panic because most of the quakes that affect Taiwan occur off the island's east coast and strong quakes rarely strike central, southern or western Taiwan.

Since the quake hit Kaohsiung County, the Seismological Centre has recorded 277 aftershocks with the biggest measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale.

'But the power of the tremors is easing,' said Tsai, the centre's deputy director.

An Indonesian maid in Chiayi City was so frightened by Thursday's quake that she chopped off her left hand with a kitchen knife, the cable television channel TVBS reported.

She underwent a 10-hour surgery to reattach her hand.