Taiwan earthquake death toll rises above 1,500
More than fifteen hundred people are known to have lost their lives in Taiwan's worst earthquake on record, as rescue workers continue their desperate search for survivors by floodlight.
Malcolm Shearmur reports.
"Rescue workers are racing against time to try to save the lives of around two thousand people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings. The quake, which measured seven point six on the Richter scale, hit Taiwan in the early hours of Tuesday while most people were asleep. The majority of victims were in the central provinces of Taichung and Nantou. Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. Most are now preparing to sleep out in the open for what could be many weeks to come."
The Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, has been quick to offer all possible assistance to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.
Relations were frozen in July, after the Taiwanese president, Lee Teng-hui, said relations should be on a state-to-state basis.
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