Quake-hit Taiwan rocked by more aftershocks

Two moderate earthquakes shook eastern Taiwan and triggered landslides today, a day after a powerful tremor killed five building workers at a high-rise building.

The 4.8 and 4.5-magnitude quakes were centred at sea about six miles off Ilan, a coastal town 90 miles south east of the capital Taipei, the Central Weather Bureau said. No injuries were reported.

They were among more than 100 aftershocks registered following yesterday’s 6.8-magnitude tremor, the bureau said.

The construction workers were killed when cranes and scaffolding at a high-rise building site went crashing to the ground after the earthquake.

More than 200 injuries were reported across the island, mostly minor, as the quake started fires, shattered windows and cracked walls.

Two cranes fell from the 60th floor of a building under construction. Television footage showed the cranes tumbling down from the top of the structure, bringing steel beams and chunks of cement down with it.

The victims were two crane operators and three other construction workers, one of whom died in the hospital last night. Dozens of other workers, many of them migrants from Thailand, escaped down from the structure safely, witnesses said.

One crane brought down large chunks of scaffolding and the second crane fell down the other side of the building and smashed several cars.

About 10 people were hurt by the falling debris, including a woman whose hand was severed when part of a crane came crashing down on her car.

‘‘I pulled over my car and ran for a few steps before I saw a falling steel beam smashing another car, right in front of me,’’ taxi driver Wang Tien-tse said.

The building under construction - the Taipei Financial Centre - will be Taipei’s tallest when completed, towering more than 100 storeys high.

Officials said the cranes were attached to a temporary steel structure and the tremor may have loosened the screws, causing them to fall.

Elsewhere in Taipei, the capital, buildings rocked back and forth, cracks appeared in walls and frightened people ran from homes and churches. State radio said that gas leaks started several small fires.

The government’s Disaster Control Centre said about 220 people were injured across the island, but most of the injuries reported were minor.

Landslides along the island’s east coast disrupted traffic, and Taipei’s underground train system was closed for four hours for damage inspection. Flights continued as scheduled from Taiwan’s two international airports, however.

The Central Weather Bureau said that the quake was centred off the coastal city of Hualien, 108 miles east of Taipei. It struck at 2.53pm (0753 BST) and lasted for nearly a minute, the bureau said.