An earthquake has toppled buildings in the south Taiwanese city of Tainan, killing at least seven people.
Rescue teams have been trying to reach people trapped in rubble since
the magnitude 6.4 quake struck just before 04:00 (20:00 GMT Friday).
A baby was among at least four people killed when a high-rise block collapsed. More than 300 people have been injured.
President Ma Ying-jeou promised an "all-out effort" to rescue people.
Leaning ruins
Television pictures showed rescue workers frantically trying to
reach people trapped in collapsed buildings, using ladders to climb over
piles of rubble.
One of the worst affected was the 17-storey Wei Kuan apartment complex, home to at least 256 people.
More than 200 people were rescued, but a baby, young girl and two
adult men did not survive, officials said. At least 30 people are
believed to still be trapped inside.
Interior Minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared more people may have
been in the fallen apartment block than usual as families gathered to
celebrate Chinese New Year.
He said investigators would examine whether the building's construction met requirements.
Rescue personnel carry a survivor at the site of a collapsed
building in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan
following a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the island early on February 6, 2016. At least 30 people
have been rescued after four buildings collapsed after a shallow quake struck
at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) around 2000 GMT
Friday, according to the US Geological Survey, 39 kilometres northeast of
Kaohsiung, the second-largest city on the island and an important port. Photo: Taiwan
Out/AFP.
Residents told how they were able to escape from their homes in the block.
"I used a hammer to break the door of my home which was twisted and locked, and managed to climb out," one woman told local TV.
Another man tied clothes together to make a rope and lowered himself
from the ninth floor to the sixth floor below, Apple Daily reports.
Irving Chu was in a hostel in central Tainan. He said he had been woken up by a tremor lasting about 40 seconds.
"It was a violent jerking motion," he told BBC World News. "The
entire room was shaking. We were just holding on to things. We were
shaken up."
Barry Knapp, a British man in Taiwan, said he was 240km (150 miles) north of Tainan but still felt the tremor.
"I was just in bed, about to fall asleep, and shaking started happening," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It was going on for about 20 to 30 seconds and it came in waves. It
was shaking and then it eased off, but then it started shaking even
harder."
The quake was shallow, meaning its effects would have been amplified, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
There have also been at least five aftershocks. The quake was felt in the capital Taipei, 300 km away.
Although the damage does not appear to be widespread, a number of tall buildings have been left leaning precariously.
There are also reports of power outages, and transport links have
been disrupted on what is one of the busiest travelling days of the year
ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and often sees tremors.
Beijing has offered assistance although at the moment at least, given
the relatively limited scale of the disaster, it does not look as if
much outside help is needed, the BBC's John Sudworth reports from the
Chinese capital.
Back in 1999, when a 7.6 magnitude quake killed more than 2,300
people in central Taiwan, a similar offer of help from the mainland
became embroiled in political wrangling, with Taiwan accusing China of
exploiting the situation for its own political ends, our correspondent
adds.
