Powerful Taiwan quake kills at least 11

Rescuers pulled 247 survivors from the rubble in the worsthit Tainan city. More than 1,200 firefighters scrambled with ladders, cranes and other equipment to the ruins of a 17-floor residential building that folded like an accordion in a pile of rubble and twisted metal. 

Local media said the building included a care centre for newborns and mothers, and a newborn was among the dead in the disaster, which came two days ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations that are the most important family holiday in the Chinese calendar. 

Most people were caught asleep when the 6.4-magnitude temblor struck about 4 am local time (2000 GMT Friday). It hit some 35 kilometres southeast of Yujing, and struck about 10 kilometres underground, according to the US Geological Survey. 

Rescuers pulled out 247 survivors, the emergency centre said. Seventy-three people were sent to hospitals. 

The Wei Guan residential tower was home to 256 people living in 96 units. According to the disaster response centre, 230 of them were rescued and 26 unaccounted for, although it was unclear how many people were inside the building at the time of the fall. 

Dozens more people have been rescued or safely evacuated from a market and a seven-floor building that was badly damaged, the official China Central News Agency reported. A bank building also careened, but no injuries were reported, it said.