A powerful earthquake has struck Taiwan near the southern city of Tainan, with five people confirmed dead and dozens feared trapped under a collapsed apartment block.
Tainan city government said 221 people had been rescued and more than 100 hospitalised.
Emergency officials said a 10-day-old infant and three other people died when a 17-storey residential building collapsed. Around 35 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.
The agency said 256 people were believed to have been living in 92 households in the Wei Guan building.
The US Geological Survey recorded powerful tremors of 6.4 magnitude early on Saturday morning local time, following initial reports of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.
Fire brigade rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the wreckage and help survivors to safety. One elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up weaker signs of life among the rubble.
The Taiwanese president, Ma Ying-jeou, speaking to reporters in the capital before leaving for the scene, said authorities were not clear on the extent of the disaster.
“The disaster situation is not very clear yet. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure survivors,” Ma said.
Residents and media outlets in the area took to social media with cellphone videoclips of the aftermath, as fire crews tried to rescue people from wrecked buildingsamid the sound of screaming and emergency vehicle sirens.
The China Post newspaper in Taiwan said on its website: “Collapsed buildings reported in Tainan, with rescue workers arriving on scene. The city government there has set up a level one emergency response centre. Onlookers are urged not to block access to emergency crews moving into the area.”
Lin Kuang-cheng, a spokesman for the national fire agency said: “Four buildings have collapsed in Tainan City area. Search and rescue is underway and no casualties have been reported at this moment.”
Residents and reporters also posted pictures of huge buildings listing atprecarious angles over the street.
The city of Kaohsiung, further south, was also affected.
The earthquake was a shallow one, occurring close to the land surface, which can be particularly destructive. But there has been no indication so far that it might result in a tsunami, the authorities said.
Taiwanese television reported that there were hundreds of people in one of the buildings that collapsed in Tainan. “I hugged the wall and put my face to the wall,” Tainan resident Pao-feng Wu told Reuters.
The earthquake struck a few minutes before 4am local time in Taiwan and tremors were felt right across the island and as far north as the capital, Taipei, 200 miles away.
In the immediate aftermath of the quake, flooding and power failures had affected the worst hit south-western area and authorities scrambled to reach residents.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A 6.3-magnitude quake which hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides.
A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island in September 1999 and killed about 2,400 people.
