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HUALIEN, TAIWAN – APRIL 06: A helicopter descends onto a car park carrying people rescued from the Taroko Gorge after they were trapped in the mountainous areas for nearly 3 days on April 06, 2024 in Hualien, Taiwan. There are still hundreds of victims stuck in the mountains after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, April 3rd, triggering a tsunami warning for the coastline in Taiwan, The Philippines and Japan. (Photo by Annabelle Chih/Getty Images)
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
Rescuers were planning to bring in heavy equipment on April 6 to try to recover two bodies buried under boulders on a hiking trail, three days after Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years.
Four more people remain missing on the same Shakadang Trail in Taroko National Park, famed for its rugged mountainous terrain. Search and recovery work was set to resume, after being called off Friday afternoon because of aftershocks.
Also read | Rescuers search for people out of contact in Taiwan after strong earthquake
At least 12 people were killed by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Wednesday morning off Taiwan’s east coast, and 10 others were still missing.
More than 600 people, including about 450 at a hotel in the Taroko park, remained stranded in various locations cut off by rockslides and other damage.
Survivors have told harrowing tales of rocks tumbling onto roadways, trapping them in tunnels until rescuers arrived to free them. In the city of Hualien, a building left tilting over a street at a precarious angle was being carefully torn down.
The relatively low number of deaths from such a powerful quake has been attributed to strict construction standards and widespread public education campaigns on the earthquake-prone island.
In pictures | Taiwan rocked by strongest earthquake in nearly 25 years
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows Taiwan’s president-elect and current Vice-President Lai Ching-te (3rd R) surveying damage in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
In this photo released by the Taiwan Air Force Command, members of a search and rescue team prepare to deploy on a Taiwan Air Force C-130 from southern Taiwan’s Pingtung military air base en route for Hualien on on April 3, 2024.
In this photo released by the Hualien City Government, government workers and journalists are seen near firefighters working near a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on April 3, 2024.
Firefighters work at the site where a building collapsed following the earthquake, in Hualien, Taiwan, in this handout provided by Taiwan’s National Fire Agency on April 3, 2024.
An area of a damaged hotel is cordoned off, following an earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan on April 3, 2024.
In this image taken from a video footage run by TVBS, residents rescue a child from a partially collapsed building in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on April 3, 2024.
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows people looking at a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
In this image taken from a video footage run by TVBS, a partially collapsed building is seen in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on April 3, 2024.
This screengrab taken from video footage captured by an onlooker shows rockfall from a mountain near Kanan bridge in Hualien county on April 3, 2024 after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows emergency workers attending to a survivor, who had been trapped in a damaged building, in New Taipei City, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
Passengers wait to board a south bound train as some train services were suspended in the aftermath of an earthquake in Taipei, Taiwan on April 3, 2024.
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows damage to buildings in Xindian district of New Taipei City, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a barricade erected around debris in the compound of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
This photo taken by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows emergency workers working to locate survivors from a damaged building in New Taipei City, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east.
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A magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck in 1999 killed 2,400 people.
The two dead and four missing on Shakadang Trail include a family of five. The trapped bodies found on Friday were a man and a woman, but they have not been identified, according to Taiwanese media reports.
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