Quake off Taiwan kills 2, triggers tsunami warning

A powerful earthquake struck Tuesday off southwestern Taiwan, triggering a tsunami warning on the second anniversary of the waves that killed more than 200,000 people in southern Asia.

Tuesday’s quake hit just offshore from the township of Hengchun on the island’s southern tip, killing two members of a family whose four-story home there collapsed. Six other members of the family were rescued from the rubble early today, the National Fire Agency said.

A total of 42 people were injured in southern Taiwan, the fire agency said. Three houses collapsed, and 12 fires broke out.

The quake swayed buildings and knocked objects off shelves here in the capital. Several high-rise hotels swayed violently in the southern city of Kaohsiung, the CTI cable news channel reported.

Phone communications with some neighboring countries were interrupted, apparently because the quake damaged an undersea cable.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1; Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau measured it at 6.7. An aftershock eight minutes later measured 7, the USGS said.

Early today another aftershock, measuring 5.9, was registered in the area, the Central Weather Bureau said.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said a 3.3-foot tsunami might be headed toward the eastern coast of the Philippines, but later lifted the warning.

The alert underscored the higher level of caution in the region since a massive earthquake off Indonesia exactly two years earlier triggered a powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

To mark the anniversary, people prayed at mass graves, chimed temple bells and lighted candles. Some mourners observed a moment of silence at the exact time the waves began crashing ashore, and others lighted incense, prayed and threw flowers into the sea.

Sirens sent thousands of people fleeing the coast in Indonesia’s largest-ever tsunami drill. Authorities said the drill on the resort island of Bali, which was unaffected by the 2004 disaster, was aimed at raising awareness and testing technology deployed in the last two years.

In Sri Lanka, temple bells chimed to mark the moment the first wave hit, and all cars and trucks came to a standstill for two minutes to remember the estimated 35,000 who died there.

Ceremonies were small and somber in southern India, where about 18,000 were killed or presumed dead.

In Thailand, events were held along the Andaman coast with Buddhist prayers to remember more than 8,200 believed to have been killed.