At least four people were killed Saturday morning when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan, the Taiwanese Disaster Response Center said.
At least 224 people in the city were rescued from damaged structures, many from a 17-story residential building that collapsed in Tainan, officials told CNN. 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.
More than 150 people in Tainan were hospitalized, disaster officials said.
A man who was staying in a room he rented in a 30-year-old, three-story apartment building in Tainan told Chinese state media CCTV the building was shaking violently when the quake hit before sunrise. His room soon started tilting.
The man said the 45-degree tilt resulted in items inside his room spilling all over the floor. Unable to use the stairs, he managed to escape from the window of the second floor.
Video shot by CNN affiliate SETTV showed rescuers helping several people from the rubble, including one man who had blood on his face. In another shot, rescuers carefully lower an elderly woman strapped to a backboard.
SETTV’s aerial footage showed the collapsed 17-story building, with white smoke or dust still billowing from the destruction.
More than 1,500 people are involved in rescue efforts, the disaster center said. Seven other buildings were damaged.
Taiwan’s outgoing President, Ma Ying-jeou, is on his way to the city, CNN affiliate EBC and other Taiwanese media reported.
About 1.9 million people live in Tainan,Taiwan’s oldest city.
As of 5:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. ET Friday), 121,672 homes and businesses were without power in Tainan
The tremor was centered about 48 kilometers (30 miles) east-southeast of Tainan, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
