A significant earthquake has struck Taiwan, shuttering some of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s chip fabrication plants.
Taiwan’s Seismology Centre recorded multiple quakes on Wednesday, local time. The big one, which struck at 07:58 local time, registered 7.5 on the Richter scale.
While the big quake struck off Taiwan’s east coast, over 100 kilometres from Taiwan’s capital; Taipei and the island’s tech manufacturing districts, TSMC has reportedly evacuated some of its chip fabrication plants as a safety precaution for its personnel.
Reports suggest widespread damage in parts of Taiwan, and Internet outages have been detected in downtown Taipei.
But Taiwan’s stock exchange, which appears to be operating at the time of writing, has experienced only a minor dip, suggesting businesses are not expecting a major impact.
Taiwan lies to the south-west of Japan and the latter nation’s authorities have issued a tsunami warning and urged citizens to be on guard as strong earthquakes are seldom singular events.
This is a breaking story and The Register will update it as more information become available. ®
Source: The register