TAIWAN ROCKS BY 5.9 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES

TV top footage showed residents of Kaohsiung running into the streets, fearing their buildings might collapse.

Taipei: A shallow 5.9-magnitude earthquake sent panicked people fleeing onto the streets in Taiwan's second-largest city of Kaohsiung on Sunday as rail services were temporarily suspended.
The quake struck 57 kilometres east of the city at 10:34 am (0234 GMT) at a depth of just four kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
The Hong Kong Observatory measured the quake at magnitude 6.0, while Taiwan's Seismology Centre put the magnitude at 6.1.

• Services on a high-speed railway linking Kaohsiung with Taiwan's capital of Taipei in the north were halted temporarily, railway officials told AFP.
• There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.
• The greater metropolitan area of Kaohsiung has a population of nearly three million people.
• Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
• In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's recent history.

Source: Agency