A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Dapu Township in Chiayi County on Thursday morning, causing structural damage in neighboring towns and triggering precautionary measures at major semiconductor facilities. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) reported that the earthquake occurred at 10:11 a.m. and was located 40.5 kilometers southeast of the Chiayi County Government, with a depth of 10 kilometers.
At 10:30 a.m. the Tainan City Fire Department responded to reports that sections of Laiya Building’s 7th and 8th floor exterior wall collapsed, with debris hitting two cars on the street below. A rescue team of three firefighters was quickly dispatched to the building, situated in Tainan’s West Central District, confirming that no injuries were reported.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the Laiya Building, constructed in 1985 and currently operating without a management committee, had experienced similar incidents in the past. Social media posts indicated that during the 2016 Meinong earthquake in Kaohsiung, falling debris from the same building had also damaged vehicles below.
The Southern Taiwan Science Park Management Bureau reported that while public facilities remained unaffected from Chiayi to Pingtung, tech giants TSMC and UMC implemented precautionary shutdowns of select equipment. TSMC confirmed that the earthquake’s intensity did not warrant outdoor evacuation, and all safety systems remained operational without any personnel injuries.