Toddler is pulled from the rubble 24 hours after 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan as death toll rises to 24 and 158 people remain missing
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan just before 4am local time on Saturday, causing chaos
A 17-storey residential block which was home to more than 200 residents has collapsed in Tainan City
Among the dead are ten-day-old baby girl and two other children, while 158 people remain missing
Another 484 people were injured during the disaster, with a total of 230 pulled alive from the rubble
Rescuers are racing against time to save more than 125 people stuck beneath the rubble of an apartment complex in Taiwan after a powerful earthquake struck the southern part of the island on Saturday.
Around 200 people have been rescued so far, including a dazed-looking toddler who was lifted out of a collapsed flat by firemen, and more than 50 others were able to escape unaided.
The death toll for the 6.4 magnitude earthquake has now reached 24, with 22 of the victims found in the toppled block of flats in the city of Tainan, including a ten-day-old girl and two other children.
The mayor of Tainan said 126 residents were still missing, with 103 of them still trapped 'very deep' in the rubble mote than 24 hours after the 4am earthquake yesterday.
'There's no way to get to them direct, it's very difficult,' Tainan mayor William Lai said, adding that emergency workers were having to shore up the ruins to ensure they were secure before digging.
Rescuers drilled down into the rubble Sunday, urging survivors to stay strong as they tried to reach them. Several residents of the 17-storey flats were pulled out alive after being buried for more than 24 hours.
By Sunday morning, the national disaster response centre reported 158 people - including at least 41 children, according to one broadcaster - still out of contact across the city of Tainan and neighbouring counties following the disaster which struck at 4am on Saturday.
Rescue efforts have been focused on the apartment complex in the city, which had been full of families who had gathered together to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Census records show around 260 people living in the blocks but Mayor Lai said it was now thought that more than 300 had been inside to celebrate the holiday.
Eight hundred troops have been drafted in to help with the search at the flats in Wei-Kuan, using sniffer dogs to try to find signs of life in the mangled wreckage of the building. Emergency workers use cranes, ladders and sniffer dogs to trace and extract survivors.
As they worked, groups of people gathered to chant prayers at the site, accompanied by Buddhist monks.
Relative Huang Yu-liang, whose brother, sister-in-law and their two children lived in one of the flats, said: 'I was woken up by the quake and called my brother's mobile - no-one answered and I feared something was wrong.
'I rushed here and saw the collapsed building and I was in shock. Their building is at the bottom (of the wreckage).
'I am praying for miracles.'
Wang Chien-ming came from Yunlin county to the north of Tainan to find his sister and her family.
'My sister, her husband and their child live on the third floor and I haven't heard any news since I arrived here. I will keep waiting for as long as it takes.'
Liang Chuan-shun, deputy fire bureau chief for Tainan, said the search was now 'a race against time' and would continue through the night.
'Some rooms in the building were rented to students who would not register with the census authorities - we're not sure how many others might still be left within,' he said.
Officials said there were 256 people registered as living in the complex, which contained 96 apartments.
More than 250 have been rescued so far, with more than 40 hospitalised.
TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE BY NUMBERS
Dead: 11, including a ten-day-old girl
Injured: 378 taken to hospital
Saved: 230 pulled from rubble
Rescuers: 1,200 firemen and soldiers
Trapped: Up to 30 inside apartment block
Magnitude: 6.4, striking at 3.57am
One emergency worker described going from apartment to apartment, drawing red circles near windows of apartments they already had searched.
'I went to the top floors of the middle part of the building, where we found five people, one of whom was in bed and already dead,' said Liu Wen-bin, a rescuer from Taichung. 'Some people were found in the shower, some in the bedroom.'
Interior minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared there may have been more people in the building than usual as family members would have returned to celebrate the Lunar New Year holidays next week.
Residents told of their horror as the quake hit, with survivors pulled bleeding and crying from the ruins, some just in their underwear.
'The quake was really powerful - it shook up and down, left and right and even in a circle. It was terrifying,' one elderly woman at the scene who was waiting for news of a missing friend said.
The spectacular fall of the building immediately raised questions about its construction, and Taiwan's interior minister said there would be an investigation.
The initial quake, which struck just before 4am, was very shallow, at depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), which would have amplified its effects, the United States Geographical Survey said.
It was followed least five aftershocks of 3.8-magnitude or more, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. Any earthquake which measures above 6 on the Richter scale is considered strong, with the most severe recorded measuring at 8.9.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, speaking to reporters in the capital before leaving for the Tainan, said authorities were not clear on the extent of the disaster.
'The disaster situation is not very clear yet. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure (survivors),' Ma said.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which in is charge of Beijing's relations with the self-ruled island, said China was willing to provide help if needed, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province.
Eight shelters have been set up around the city, with over 100 people taking refuge there.
Officials said several blocks had collapsed or half collapsed in other parts of the city, with some buildings left leaning at alarming angles.
The quake initially cut power to 168,000 households in Tainan. Later, utility Taipower said power had been restored to all but about 900 households.
A 71-year-old neighbour, who gave his name as Chang, revealed he was watching television when the quake struck.
'I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom,' he said. 'I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down.'
A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help.
'She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them.'
One weeping resident told how she tried to smash her way out of her home.
'I used a hammer to break the door of my home which was twisted and locked, and managed to climb out,' she told local channel SET TV, weeping as she spoke.
Elsewhere in the city of two million people, several buildings tilted at alarming angles.
Dozens have been rescued or safely evacuated from a market and a seven-floor building that was badly damaged, the Central News Agency reported.
A bank building also careened, but no injuries were reported, it said.
A Tainan resident told : 'The water supply has been cut off and the hospitals are full. It's pretty horrendous. Some people are trapped in collapsed buildings.'
'This has also taken place just before Chinese New Year, which starts on Sunday.'
Liu Shih-chung, an official with the Tainan City Government, said the city had set up an emergency response centre as it tried to cope with the disaster.
'I hugged the wall and put my face to the wall,' Pao-feng Wu, a Tainan resident, said after the quake hit.
The centre was located some 22 miles (36 kilometres) south-east of Yujing, and was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
A strong 6.3-magnitude quake which hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides.
A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island in September 1999 and killed around 2,400 people.
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