Race to reach trapped survivors

Rescuers worked to reach scores of people trapped in highway tunnels as engineers began a massive clear-up operation a day after Taiwan's biggest earthquake in 25 years.

Ten people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Wednesday's magnitude-7.4 quake, but strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe on the island.

Dozens of residents of the worst-hit city, Hualien, spent a night outdoors rather than in apartments still being shaken by aftershocks, and a huge engineering operation was underway to fix damaged roads and prop up tilting buildings.

Dramatic video by the Central Emergency Operation Centre showed a helicopter flying two sorties to pluck up six miners trapped in a gypsum quarry in Hualien. Rescuers knew the whereabouts of dozens more people trapped in a network of strongly built tunnels, a feature of the roads that cut through the scenic mountains and cliffs leading to Hualien.

Hundreds of others were holding out at a hotel and youth activity center near the Taroko National Park, with roads leading to both blocked by landslides.

"I also hope that we can use today's time to find all people who are stranded and unaccounted for and help them settle down," Premier Chen Chien-jen said.

The island has been shaken by over 300 strong aftershocks since the first quake, and the government warned people to be wary of landslides or rockfalls if they ventured to the countryside for Ching Ming, a two-day public holiday that began yesterday.

The national disaster agency said 10 people had been killed - with the latest casualty found on a hiking trail yesterday - and 1,067 injured. Authorities were in contact with over 600 people trapped in tunnels or cut-off areas, but had lost touch with another 38 - although they were believed to be safe.

At around 4pm, a highway leading to Taroko National Park was cleared. A small group stranded for nearly 30 hours emerged to be greeted by rescue workers handing them water.

"It's good to be alive!" said David Chen, who works at the luxury Silks Place Taroko hotel.

In Hualien, a glass-fronted building named Uranus - now tilting at a 45-degree angle after half of its first floor pancaked - has become something of a symbol of the quake.

"When the earthquake happened, we immediately evacuated the guests," Wang Zhong-chang, 55, the proprietor of the nearby Hualien Hero hotel.

Over 100 people chose to sleep outdoors in tents at a shelter set up in an elementary school.

"Our worry is when the big aftershocks happen it might be really hard for us to evacuate one more time - especially with a baby," said Indonesian Hendri Sutrisno, 30, a professor at Donghua University.

Wednesday's quake was the most severe since the magnitude-7.6 temblor in 1999. It killed 2,400 people, the deadliest natural disaster in the island's history.

Social media was awash with video and images from around the island shared by people who experienced Wednesday's quake.

In one clip, a man struggles to get out of a rooftop swimming pool as the water swirls violently. In another, a webcam catches three cats running amok as an apartment shakes from side to side.