One killed, 24 wounded in Hengchun in largest quake in century

One person was killed and 24 others wounded in Hengchun in what is known as the largest earthquake in a century yesterday.

Killed was Fang Chen-mao, 36, of Hengchun.

As of 11 p.m., two hospitals in the township at the southern tip of Taiwan had accommodated 24 residents injured in the tremor that occurred at 8:26 p.m.

Their identity was withheld.

At least a dozen houses in Hengchun collapsed in the first hit, measured 6.7 on the Richter scale, and two afterquakes at 8:34 and 8:40.

Half a dozen fires broke out in Hengchun, and firemen were able to bring them all under control.

Telephone communication was cut in Hengchun, while scores of people were reported trapped in hotel and department store elevators in nearby Kaohsiung and Pingtung.

Hengchun, where power supply was disrupted, is about 90 kilometers south of Kaohsiung.

Seismologists in Taipei located the epicenter of the first quake some 21.9 kilometers off Hengchun. It was followed by the second tremor, measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, originated 21.3 kilometers off Fangliao near Pingtung.

The last quake, with a magnitude of 5.2, was located 25 kilometers off Hengchun.

Hsin Tsai-chin, deputy director of the National Weather Bureau, warned of more afterquakes.

"In the next week or two," Hsin said, "there will be earthquakes measured at least 5 on the Richter scale."

Earthquake reports by the U.S. Geological Survey and Japan's Meteorological Bureau were a little different.

The Americans reported the first quake with a magnitude of 7.1 and the following afterquake with 7.

Reports from Japan said the quake triggered a one meter-high tsunami heading toward the eastern coast of the Philippines.

"There is a possibility of a destructive local tsunami," a Japanese seismologist was quoted as warning the Filipinos at Basco in Luzon.

But Philippine authorities said there was little likelihood of the tsunami reaching its shores.

"There is no reason to raise a tsunami alert because there is no threat," Anthony Golez, spokesman for the government's National Disaster Coordinating Committee, was quoted as saying.