Strong Taiwan earthquake topples three-storey building, traps people

A strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan on Sunday, toppling a three-story building and trapping two people inside and knocking part of a passenger train off its tracks.

The magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest among dozens that have rattled the island's southeastern coast since Saturday evening, when a 6.4 quake struck the same area.

Most of the damage appeared to be north of the epicentre, which Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said was in the town of Chishang at the relatively shallow depth of 7 kilometres (4 miles).

The three-story building, which had a 7-11 convenience store on the ground floor and residences on the upper ones, collapsed in nearby Yuli town, the island's Central News Agency said.

The 70-year-old owner of the building and his wife have been rescued, and workers were in communication with a 39-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter still trapped inside.

Photos showed the top two stories sprawled across a narrow street and onto the other side, with electricity wires pulled down by the fallen building.

Police and firefighters rushed to a bridge collapse on a two-lane road in what appeared to be a rural part of Yuli where three people and one or more vehicles may have fallen off, according to media reports.

A landslide trapped nearly 400 tourists on a mountain in Yuli famous for the orange day lilies that blanket its slopes this time of year, the Central News Agency said. They had no electricity and a weak cellphone signal.

A canopy on a platform at Dongli station in Fuli town, which is between Yuli and the quake's epicentre at Chishang, hit a train, leaving three of the cars tilted at an angle, the agency said, citing the railway administration.

The ceiling on the 5th floor of a sports centre in Taoyuan city collapsed, leaving a 36-year-old man injured.

The shaking was felt at the north end of the island in the capital, Taipei. In Taoyuan city, west of Taipei and 210 kilometres (130 miles) north of the epicentre, a man was injured when a ceiling collapsed on the fifth floor of a sports centre.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for several southern Japanese islands near Taiwan, but later lifted it.