On September 21, Central Taiwan was devastated by a powerful quake of 7.6 on the Richter scale which left more than 2,400 dead, 11,000 injured and 100,000 homeless. The experience of Turkey, which two weeks ago suffered its second major earthquake in three months, has increased fears of a similar second disaster among Taiwanese.

Since September minor tremors and aftershocks have been a daily occurrence in Taiwan and on October 22 a quake with a magnitude of 6.4 injured several hundred people.