More than 1,700 dead in Taiwan earthquake
by William Foreman
Associated Press
Taps, Taiwan—Twenty-four hours af
ter a powerful earthquake hit Taiwan,
toppling high-rise buildings and destroy
ing homes across the island, rescue work
ers pulled bodies from the ruins one by
one. The death toll topped 1,700 early
today.
More than 100,000 Taiwanese were
left homeless by the quake, which shook
millions awake at 1:45 am. Tuesday (1:45
p.m. EDT Monday), buckled roads,
severed bridges and cut off electric ser
vice.
By early today, officials said 1,712
people were dead, more than 4,000 were
hurt and almost 3,000 were believed
trapped in the rubble. Another 216 were
missing, according to the Interior Min
istry’s disaster management center.
“Wfe’re pulling the dead out one by
one, but it’s hard to get an overall picture
of the number of fatalities,” said Chen
Wen-hsien, a rescue official in the cen
tral city of Fengyuan. In the hills above
the city, a concrete Buddhist temple fold
ed in on itself during the quake, killing
at least three people.
With a preliminary magnitude of 7.6,
the quake was the strongest to hit Taiwan
in a decade and was about the same
strength as the devastating tremor that
killed more than 15,000 people in Turkey
last month.
The quake’s epicenter was 90 miles
south of Taipei, near the central city of
Taichung. More than 700 people died
in Taichung County, and about 500 died
in nearby Nantou County. The area has
seen a burst of development in recent
years, often with shoddy construction.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin ex
tended condolences following the quake,
and today offered aid to the quake vie
tims, even though the disaster occurred
at a time of tense relations between Chi
na and Taiwan. China considers Taiwan
a breakaway province.
The quake “hurt the hearts of peo
ple on the mainland as the Chinese peo
ple on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are
as closely linked as flesh and blood,” Chi
na’s state-run Xinhua News agency said
in a paraphrase of Jiang’s remarks. Chi
na’s Red Cross said it would provide
$100,000 in disaster aid and $60,000 in
relief supplies.
Most of the structures that collapsed
in Taiwan were new high-rises. The foun
dations of some of the apartment blocks
in the cities crumpled into piles of con
crete boulders, sending the structures
crashing into neighboring buildings. Sol
diers raced out of buildings with blood
ied victims moaning in pain on stretch
ers.
Nantou County Executive Peng Pai
hsien appealed for donations of bulldoz
ers, cars, quilts and food, saying 100,000
people were left homeless in the coun
ty. He said morgues were full of bodies,
and the county needed body bags and
freezers in the summer heat.
One distraught woman told local tele
vision her parents were trapped in a
Taichung apartment building. “I don’t
know what happened to my dad and
mom,” the sobbing survivor said. “We
live in different rooms. I haven’t seen
them.”
In the small city of Puli in Nantou,
roads buckled under the stress of the
quake, forming large asphalt waves. An
apartment building that lost its founda
tion was left leaning 45 degrees.
In Taipei, the capital, the quake
wrecked the 78-room Sungshan Hotel,
collapsing the bottom stories and setting
the badly damaged structure leaning on
a neighboring commercial building. About
100 people were rescued and 80 were
trapped inside the concrete structure,
which also housed a bank and several
apartments, officials said.
One 81-year-old survivor said he
“crawled like a mouse” through the rub
ble of his ninth-floor apartment to his bal
cony, where rescuers pulled him to safe
ty
“You can’t imagine how terrible it
was,” said survivor Chen Chih-yun, who
only suffered bruises.
Fire crews turned hoses on the wreck
age as smoke poured from fires raging in
Earthquake seewges
Forty people injured in train collision
Associated Press
H.
Cumberland, Md. — Federal investi
gators were sent to look into a slow-speed
collision between an Amtrak train and a
CSX freight train in a rail yard Forty peo
ple were injured in the accident.
The Amtrak train, traveling from
Chicago to Washington, collided just be
fore noon Monday with the freight train,
which was backing into the yard CSX
spokeswoman Kathy Bums said
“First there was screeching, shak
ing and then a solid impact, which threw
me to the floor and into the seat in
front of me,” said passenger Jamds
Reed of Olathe, Kan.
The impact buckled the lead Amtrak
locomotive and the rear freight car. All
cars remained upright, though
some derailed.
The National Transportation
Safety Board sent two investi
gators to the scene in western
Maryland. They will examine
recorders to see how fast the trains
were moving.
Both trains were receiving in
structions from CSX’s national
control center in Jacksonville,
Fla.
Amtrak spokeswoman Deb
hio 14c»rp caiH Ml npnnlp u/PrP nn
Brad Walters Graphics editor
Five were hospitalized overnight and
all were in good condition today, spokes
woman Kathy Rogers said.
No one was injured on the 83-car
CSX train, which was carrying new cars.
board the Capitol Limited train,
including 16 crew members.
Most of the injured were treated for
minor scrapes and bruises, according to
Western Maryland Health System offi
cials.
An Amtrak train traveling from
Chicago to Washington collided
early Monday with a train near
Sears stops sale of
gun-toting action figure
Staff Reports
Associated Press
Hoffman Estates, III—Sears has halt
ed sales of a trenchcoat-wearing, gun-tot
ing action figure over complaints the doll
resembles the gunmen at a Colorado high
school, company officials said today.
The 12-inch doll comes with a ski
mask, black trench coat, body armor,
shotgun and rifle. The doll, in the Sept.
1 holiday catalog, is part of a series of
collectible figures called “Heroes and
Villains” that include dolls representing
World Wtr II and Vietnam War soldiers.
Jan Drummond, a spokeswoman at
the company’s suburban Chicago head
quarters, said Sears officials decided to
stop selling the doll last week after three
people complained.
“Their concerns were very sincere
and heartfelt,” she said.
Drummond said it was never Sears
intent to pattern the dolls after students
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, members
of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia, who
killed 12 classmates and a teacher at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Co
lo., before taking their own lives April
20.
“But taking a look at it, we decided
it was inappropriate,” Drummond said.
The dolls sold for $29.99 and were
recommended for children ages 5 and up.
Kim Carpenter of Longmont, Colo.,
said she complained after her 8- and
10-year-old sons saw the action figure in
the catalog and told her it looked like a
“Trench Coat Mafia doll.”
Harris and Klebold used two
sawed-off shotguns, a semiautomatic pis
tol and a black semiautomatic rifle in
their rampage. The figure’s clothes are
similar to those they wore.
Doll see page s
World Briefs
■ Four killed
in bus bombing
Zamboanga Ctty, Philippines (AP)—
A bomb exploded inside a passenger
bus taking a rest stop in the southern
Philippines Tuesday, killing at least four
people and injuring dozens of others, po
lice said.
It was at least the fourth blast to hit
buses on the island of Mindanao since last
month.
No one immediately claimed re
sponsibility for Tuesday’s blast.
The latest bombing prompted the mil
itary to set up checkpoints along the two
national highways in the western half of
Mindanao to inspect all buses. The mil
itary also instructed police officers to take
security measures at the region’s 300 bus
terminals, Lt. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa said.
Police officers were investigating the
type of explosives used. They suspected
that a timing device was used, similar to
those employed in other recent bomb
ings.
■ Special counsel
examines site
of Davidian deaths
Waco, Texas (AP)—The special coun
sel investigating whether there was an of
ficial cover-up in the 1993 Branch Da
vidian siege has taken a personal tour of
the site and met relatives of one of the
victims.
John C. Danforth, former senator
from Missouri, flew over the site of the
sect’s Mount Carmel compound,
where leader David Koresh died in a fire
along with about 80 followers.
He spoke with Eugene and Filome
na Hipsman of Chester, N. Y., who were
visiting the spot for the first time since
their 27-year-old son, Peter, died in the
gunfight that started the siege.
Attorney General Janet Reno named
Danforth to head an independent inquiry
into the actions of law enforcement of
ficers during the deadly raid on the com
pound after learning the FBI used po
tentially incendiary tear gas grenades
during the final day of the siege. The bu
reau had denied the use of such devices
for years.
Government officials maintain that
Branch Davidians, not federal agents, set
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