A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous, rural area of Taiwan’s south on Jan 21, the island’s weather administration said, injuring 27 people and causing ceilings of homes to cave in according to the local authorities.

The quake had a depth of 9.4km with its epicentre in Dapu township in Chiayi county, the weather administration said.

The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, put the magnitude at 6.0.

The shallow quake caused buildings in the capital Taipei to shake as it struck at 12.17am local time, 12km north of Yujing, a mango-growing district in southern Taiwan.

Video posted on Facebook and verified by AFP showed the local fire authorities rescuing three people, including a child, who were trapped in a house that collapsed in nearby Nanxi district.

The ceilings of several other houses in the district caved in.

Elsewhere, a person was injured by falling debris while two people were reported trapped in elevators, authorities said.

The health ministry said a total of 27 people were injured, while the Nanxi district fire brigade said “no major damage” had been reported.

In Chiayi City, about 40km north of Yujing, CCTV footage inside a nut shop that was shared on Threads and verified by AFP showed shelves swaying and goods falling to the floor.

An AFP journalist in Taipei felt their residential tower shake for nearly a minute.

The Chiayi fire department also said there were no reports of major casualties so far in the city, while an official in Dapu, who gave his family name as Chi, told Reuters power cuts were reported in some villages and some buildings were damaged.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the dominant maker of advanced chips, said all its sites were operating following the quake.

A major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, TSMC had earlier evacuated staff at its factories in central and southern Taiwan as a precaution.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. In 1906, the Meishan earthquake near Chiayi killed more than 1,200 people.

Taiwan’s last major earthquake was in April, a 7.2 magnitude temblor that hit the east coast county of Hualien, killing 13 people.

More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016 and a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.

Since then, Taiwan has updated and enhanced its building code to incorporate quake-resistant construction methods, such as steel bars that allow a building to sway more easily when the ground moves.

Some major buildings that were designed before the 1999 quake were already incorporating features to guard against shaking.

The government also requires the reinforcement of structures built before the updated codes were introduced.

These older buildings are often the main cause for concern during earthquakes. There were complaints as recently as 2018 about a lack of funding for reinforcing such structures.

Famous for its cutting-edge tech firms, Taiwan has built up an advanced early warning system that can alert the public to potentially serious ground-shaking within seconds.

The system has been enhanced over the years to incorporate new tools such as smartphones and high-speed data connectivity, even in some of the most remote parts of the island.

Asia News Network/The Straits Times