By Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher
HUALIEN, Taiwan (Reuters) -The number of people injured in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in eastern Taiwan climbed past 1,000 on Thursday though the death toll remained steady at nine, with 42 workers on their way to a hotel in a national park still missing.
The temblor, the strongest in 25 years, hit on Wednesday morning just as people were readying to go to work and school, focused on the largely rural and sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien.
Buildings also shook violently in the capital Taipei, but damage and disruption there was minimal.
Taiwan’s fire department said the number of injuries had reached 1,038, and put the total number of missing at 48, including 42 hotel workers.
Late Wednesday, the disaster management command centre said the search for the hotel workers on their way to Taroko Gorge, a national park, was a major focus for them. Authorities planned to send in drones and helicopters to look for them and drop supplies if they are located.
Others who had been trapped are gradually being found and taken to safety.
On Thursday, a helicopter rescued six people who had been trapped in a mining area, the fire department said.
The railway line to Hualien also re-opened ahead of schedule on Thursday, though one rural station north of Hualien city remains closed due to damage, the railway administration said.
In Hualien city, where rescue work for people who had been trapped in buildings was now completed, some people slept outdoors overnight as dozens of aftershocks rocked the region.
A lady who gave her family name as Yu, 52, said she checked herself into a tent on a sports ground at temporary shelter late on Wednesday night because she was too scared to sleep in her apartment, which she described as “a mess”.
“The aftershocks were terrifying. It’s nonstop. I do not dare to sleep in the house,” she said.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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