In Hualien County, Sunday’s quakes brought down a building with four people inside.
People scream as they rush to escape from a debris-filled street. One quick turnaround reveals why: a building has collapsed. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook Taiwan on Sunday, bringing with it hefty damage. The building shown here is in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County.
Four people were buried in the rubble. Rescuers are shown here navigating the destruction and calling out to survivors. Everything is now slanted so they must make their way through carefully.
One elderly person was lying on the sofa when the earthquake hit. The ceiling fell on top of them leaving them stuck in place. Rescue workers remove obstructions carefully, making sure that they don’t make things worse for the trapped victim.
Among the other three people trapped is a little girl. Her mother calls out to rescuers telling them her child is scared. In the end, all survivors are pulled from the wreckage.
Afterwards, with the landlord’s approval, the county government started demolishing what’s left of the building. Workers take care to excavate valuables like cash from the site, all of it secondary to their main success of the day: bring the people trapped inside to safety.