(VOVWORLD) -At least 7 people were killed and more than 700 were injured after a powerful earthquake hit the waters off Hualien County in China’s northeastern Taiwan on Wednesday morning, according to data released by Taiwanese (China) authorities.
 A building was damaged after an earthquake hit China's Taiwan on April 3, 2024. Photo: AFP/VNA
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Firefighters in Hualien near the quake's epicenter said more than 70 people are still trapped in the rubble and casualties will rise in the coming hours.
According to Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, Chairwoman of Association of New Immigrants in Taoyuan City and Director of Southeast Asian Immigration Company, which often helps Vietnamese people in China’s Taiwan, there has been no information yet about Vietnamese casualties.
“The Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei sent messages and provided a phone number for Vietnamese people here to contact for assistance. If you encounter a difficulty, you can also call me so we can help. The phone number is 0988342268," she said.
The earthquake forced the Japanese government to issue a tsunami warning on the southern island of Okinawa, which was lifted on Wednesday afternoon, but Japanese officials advised people to be cautious.
Shigeki Aoki, Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Risk Reduction Coordinator of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), said: “According to past observations, the possibility of similar earthquakes happening after a major earthquake is between 10% and 20%, so there is chance of aftershocks in the next few days. If a strong earthquake occurs under the sea, we must be extremely cautious about tsunamis."
The Japan Meteorological Agency reassessed the magnitude of the earthquake, raising it to 7.7 from the initial estimate of 7.5.
This is the strongest earthquake in Taiwan (China) in the past 25 years, since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that claimed nearly 2,400 lives in 1999.