Taiwan's foreign ministry reports two Australians missing after Wednesday's massive earthquake.

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Following a significant earthquake on Tuesday, more than 7,000 search and rescue workers are frantically looking for two Australians who went missing in Taiwan. Neo Siew Choo and Sim Hwee Kok, who are identified as Singaporeans with Australian passports, are reported missing. "The Australian Office in Taipei is making urgent enquiries with local authorities to confirm their welfare," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade stated.

Rescuers face more landslides and rockfalls as they search for 13 people still missing from Wednesday's quake, including three foreigners, including a Canadian. The death toll rose to 12.

Source : X from Sky NewsTwo more bodies were found after Wednesday's magnitude 7.2 quake in Hualien, a sparsely populated, mostly rural eastern county. Boulders rolled down mountains, cutting off roads and stranding hundreds in a national park. Rescuers said 400 people cut off in a luxury hotel in the Taroko Gorge national park were safe after 50 aftershocks overnight, some felt as far away as Taipei. Helicopters carried injured and supplies.

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"As for the four foreigners, two of them are Australian-Singaporean dual-nationals, there is one Indian and one Canadian," Chen-Wei, the mayor of Hualien, stated. The missing person's names were also verified by the Hualien Fire Department. Declaring that investigations were ongoing, it did not respond to any more queries.

Authorities say that over 600 people are reportedly trapped and that at least 38 are missing. A network of robustly constructed tunnels in the Hulien county, close to the epicentre of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake, trapped dozens of people.

Taiwan is earthquake-prone because it is located close to the meeting point of two tectonic plates.

The Evening post AU interview Associate Professor Stuart Clark from the University of New South Wales, an expert in geophysics and plate tectonics, provides insights into the nature of the earthquake and discusses the lack of specific warnings leading up to it

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