《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Taiwanese in Japan safe, to return home: ministry

/ Staff writer, with CNA

Thirty-nine Taiwanese students and tourists in Japan’s quake-struck Kumamoto Prefecture were brought to safety yesterday, with seven stranded Taiwanese still awaiting rescue, officials said.

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A total of 28 university students were picked up from Kumamoto University and Kumamoto Gakuen University and were to be driven to Fukuoka City, where some of them were to board a flight back to Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Eleven Taiwanese tourists stranded in the southern part of the Aso area in Kumamoto were also rescued, said Rong Yee-jung （戎義俊）, director of Taiwan’s representative office in Fukuoka.

Taiwan officials had made contact with them and were to dispatch cars to pick them up, Rong added.

“I am glad that we were able to escape,” said Lai Chun-yi （賴君怡）, who led the tour group.

When a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck in the middle of the night on Saturday, she felt her body bounce up and down twice on the bed, Lai said.

As the heaving increased in intensity, objects fell to the ground and the door collapsed, Lai said.

“It was horrifying,” she added.

Lai said aftershocks occurred every five minutes and the owner of the bed-and-breakfast where they were staying instructed everyone to exit the building.

The 11 tourists were scheduled to arrive in Taiwan last night.

In Kumamoto City, a resident from Taiwan told the Central News Agency that “there is almost no food left to buy in Kumamoto now.”

Another Taiwanese expatriate living in Kumamoto City said that the hardest-hit area from the earthquakes is about a one-hour drive from the downtown district.

She said that as there have been constant aftershocks, she, her husband and three children had to seek shelter at an elementary school campus, where they have set up camp on an open playground.

She added that a shortage of food and other daily commodities is a serious problem. Whenever a supermarket gets new stock, it sells out quickly, she said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES