Thirty-six Taiwanese nationals are safe in Japan's quake-affected Kumamoto city and Aso city. That’s the word from Taiwan's representative office in Fukuoka on Saturday.
According to the office, the 36 are all tourists. Twenty-five of them are in four groups in Kumamoto city, 10 are in one group in Aso city, and one is at the airport in Kumamoto.
Two deadly temblors rocked the Kumamoto area in the past two days starting late Thursday. The latest one had a magnitude of 7.3. It shook Aso early Saturday morning and claimed at least 15 lives, injured many others and brought down buildings. An earlier magnitude 6.4 quake hit Kumamoto city on Friday, leaving at least nine dead.
The officials said that since the earthquakes have damaged the bridges and tunnels to Aso, the interrupted transportation links prevented Taiwan's representative office in Fukuoka from reaching the affected area immediately to provide assistance to the stranded Taiwanese, but the office has been keeping in touch with them.