Taiwan earthquake – latest news: Survivor says tremors unleashed ‘rocks like bullets’ as death toll rises

One survivor of the Taiwan earthquake has recalled how tremors unleashed rockslides “like bullets” around the coal mine he was working at.

“The mountain started raining rocks like bullets, we had nowhere to escape to, everyone ran beside the sandbags for cover,” the survivor, identified by his surname Chu, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Another woman who worked opposite the collapsed Uranus building in Hualien city, told the BBC: “It was so shaky I could barely walk. I was really scared. I felt my legs were not in control anymore. Thanks to my colleagues, they dragged me so we could get out.”

“There was a lot of dust coming into our building on our way out… We [later] realised that it came from the building across the street that had partially collapsed.”

Rescuers searched Thursday for missing people and worked to reach hundreds stranded.

Liu Zhong-da, a 58-year-old construction worker, and his colleague were on their way to work on a road in the national park and were inside a tunnel when the quake hit. A boulder blocked their exit and they were trapped along with some other people.

“We almost got covered up,” Liu said. “No communication could be made (to the outside world).” Liu and his colleague were rescued Thursday afternoon and received a quick medical checkup outside the park.

About 60 workers who had been unable to leave a quarry because of damaged roads were also freed, authorities said. Six workers from another quarry were airlifted out.

Some residents of the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicentre of the quake were staying in tents, and the main road linking the county to the capital, Taipei, was still closed on Thursday afternoon, but much of Taiwan‘s day-to-day life has returned to normal.

Some local rail service to Hualien resumed, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, one of the world’s most important manufacturers of computer chips, restarted most operations, the Central News Agency reported.

The powerful quake struck during the morning rush hour a day earlier, sending schoolchildren rushing outdoors and families fleeing their apartments through the windows.

The ground floors of some buildings collapsed, leaving them leaning at precarious angles. Though the island is regularly rattled by earthquakes and generally well prepared, authorities did not send out the usual alerts because they were expecting a smaller temblor.

Rescue workers have found most of the roughly 50 hotel workers marooned on a main road as they headed to a resort in the Taroko Gorge national park.

They also reached the hotel in the gorge, cut off by the quake, and established all 400 people there were safe. The fire department said work would continue in the morning to re-open the road.

The discovery of a dead body on a hiking trail near the entrance to the gorge took the total deaths to 10.

The agriculture ministry urged people to keep away from the mountains because of the risk of falling rocks and the formation of “barrier lakes” as water pools behind unstable debris.

A helicopter has plucked to safety six people stranded in a mining area, and confirmed all were safe.

The rescue of the miners, who had been trapped on a cliff, was dramatic after the quake cut off roads into Hualien’s soaring mountains, footage showed.

The authorities said four foreigners remained unaccounted for – one Canadian, one Indian and two Australians.