TAIPEI (REUTERS, AFP) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck Taiwan's coastal city of Hualien on Thursday (April 18), temporarily halting subway services in the capital Taipei and injuring 17 people, including a Malaysian.
Local television footage showed schoolchildren being evacuated from buildings, while a weather bureau official said it was the largest quake to hit the heavily industrialised island so far this year.
A hundred people were evacuated from a building in Taipei City, while two people were hit by falling rocks in the tourist city of Hualien, the government said.
The quake struck at around 1pm local time and at a depth of 18km, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that the quake measured at 4.0-magnitude in the Taipei area. Aftershocks of more than a 5.0 magnitude were possible in the coming days, the bureau said.
While small-scale power cuts were reported in some districts in Taipei, the Central News Agency said, oil refinery plants and services were operating as normal, according to the government. The central government added that it had set up a disaster reaction centre.
President Tsai Ing-wen said high-speed rail service in northern Taiwan, between Taipei and the neighbouring city of Taoyuan, had been temporarily suspended.
On her official Facebook page, Ms Tsai said she asked officials "to gather information from everywhere to check whether there's any damage, and if so, to react as soon as possible."
In the capital Taipei, high-rises swayed while some panicked schoolchildren fled their classrooms in eastern Yilan county, according to reports.
The quake was felt across the island and a highway connecting Yilan and Hualien was shut down due to falling rocks, the authorities said.
An official at the Hualien county fire department told AFP that two people were injured by falling rocks. The National Fire Agency said one, a Malaysian male tourist, had been rushed to hospital in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest, a leg fracture and head injuries.
The agency added that there were also 15 injuries reported around Taipei and that two buildings in the city were temporarily evacuated due to structural damages after the tremor.
"The tremor could be felt for 33 seconds, which is considered quite long... It could be felt all over Taiwan and it's the first quake above 6.0 magnitude this year," said Chen Kuo-chang, director of the bureau's seismological centre.
Social media users posted photos of the glasses at a restaurant being shattered by the quake, and of the exterior tiles of a department store building falling.
"I live on the 21st floor, the building swayed so much that I was almost scared to death," one user posted.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that people living near the coast could notice some effects on sea levels, but said there would be no tsunami, and "there is no concern about damage".
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude of the quake at 6.4 in an initial reading, but later revised it to 6.1, adding that it struck at a depth of 20km east of Hualien.
Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers its own, lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes.
More than 100 people were killed in an earthquake in the island's south in 2016, and a quake of 7.6-magnitude killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.
