A huge Buddhist statue in Wufeng, Taiwan, tilts after the area was hit by a strong earthquake Tuesday. (AFP)

By Dirk Beveridge
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 1999; 4:00 p.m. EDT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Rescuers scrambled through the night Tuesday to unearth thousands of people trapped under debris from Taiwan's second-deadliest earthquake, which killed more than 1,700 people and left hundreds reported missing.

More than 100,000 Taiwanese were homeless after the 7.6-magnitude quake toppled houses and high-rise apartment complexes across central Taiwan. Roads buckled, chunks of land rose up to create new hills and a bridge was left dangling in the air.

By early Wednesday, officials said 1,712 people were dead, more than 4,000 were injured and almost 3,000 were believed trapped in the rubble. Some 216 were missing, according to the Interior Ministry's disaster management center.

About 4 million households were still without power early Wednesday, utility officials said.

Taiwan is hit by dozens of quakes each year, but most are centered in the Pacific Ocean east of the island and cause no damage. The island's deadliest quake, with a 7.4 magnitude, killed 3,276 people in 1935.

``We'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 central city of Fengyuan, about 30 miles from the epicenter. He had to plug his nose with tissue after part of a building began shifting from an aftershock, releasing the stench of a corpse still inside.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau listed the quake as a 7.3 magnitude, a little less than the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate. The bureau said the quake's epicenter was in Nantou County, 120 miles south of the capital Taipei, where most of the deaths occurred.

Morgues filled up with bodies and officials appealed for donations of bulldozers, cars, quilts and food. Rescue crews from the United States, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and Russia were on their way to provide assistance, as was a U.N. disaster assessment team.

Taiwan's political nemesis, the communist regime in Beijing, offered aid, but with a subtle dig.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin said the disaster ``hurt the hearts of people on the mainland as the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are as closely linked as flesh and blood.''

China's Red Cross said it would provide the equivalent of $100,000 in disaster aid and $60,000 worth of relief supplies. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Beijing will provide ``all assistance within our capability.''

The Taipei government expressed cautious thanks.

``This would be a good beginning to improving ties,'' said Su Chi, chairman of the government Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for Taiwan's relations with China. ``I hope we can work on this basis and make efforts together to build up stable and peaceful relations.''

Ties between Taiwan and mainland China had recently sunk to a new low after Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui said Beijing must deal with the island on a ``state-to-state'' basis.

Lee surveyed the damage by helicopter and urged officials and citizens to concentrate on saving lives.

In Tungshih, a city of 60,000 in a nearby mountainous area, virtually every house was damaged and one in three was ruined, with all power, water and communications links cut off.

Several hundred bodies were piled up in an open-air morgue, Lee Wen-wei, an administrator at the Farmers Association Hospital in Tungshih, told The Associated Press. The hospital lost power and was evacuating patients.

Exhausted rescue workers in Tungshih said late Tuesday that they did not have enough heavy machinery to dig through all the rubble.

In the small city of Puli, in Nantou county, roads buckled under the stress of the quake, forming large asphalt waves. An apartment building that lost its foundation was left tilting at 45 degrees.

Most of the island's 22 million people were asleep when the quake struck at about 1:45 a.m., forcing people in their nightclothes out of homes.

``It's too big a disaster. It came on so fast. There's so much death,'' said Lin Mei-lan, a coordinator at a Buddhist charity that was bringing in blankets, food and medical help.

Most buildings in Nantou and Tungshih counties were left standing, although the ones that collapsed were mainly new high-rises. The region has experienced a boom in development in recent years, and shoddy construction has been a problem.

The damage could come to $3.2 billion, according to a Taipei newspaper, the United Evening News, which cited information from unidentified government officials. But a government spokesman said it was too early to assess the monetary damage.

Taipei, population 2.7 million, was spared much of the damage, though the quake destroyed a 12-story hotel in the eastern part of the capital.

Chen Chih-yun, 81, was one of the first to escape, and described how he ``crawled like a mouse'' to safety. He climbed over a fallen wall in his apartment in complete darkness and followed a neighbor's lead before finally reaching a balcony outside his ninth-floor apartment.

``You could never imagine how terrible it was,'' Chen said, although he was only bruised. ``I heard my wife screaming in the next room that she could not move, but I shouted back that I could not help her.''

Chen was able to tell his son that his wife, 71-year-old Lee Hsiu-yun, was inside and he was able to rescue her.