An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale has rocked Taiwan causing several buildings in the capital to collapse and forcing a shutdown of the capital's subway system, officials and witnesses have said.
"The damage is quite serious. Several buildings collapsed," an official of the government's disaster response centre said today.
Full details of damage or casualties were not immediately known, he said.
The earthquake struck at 7:52 a.m. and was centred in the sea about 44.3 kilometres east of Hualien in eastern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.
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An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale on September 21st, 1999, killed 2,400 people and damaged over 50,000 buildings.