A powerful earthquake rocked the entire island of Taiwan early Wednesday, collapsing buildings in a southern city and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands, The Associated Press reported.
A five-story building in Hualien appeared heavily damaged. In the capital, Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings and within some newer office complexes.
Some reports said that people were trapped in some of the buildings which collapsed in the quake.
So far, at least one person has been confirmed dead and 50 have been reported injured.
Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency gave the magnitude as 7.2 while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.4. It struck at 7:58 a.m. about 18 kilometers south-southwest of Hualien and was about 35 kilometers deep.
Seismology officials said it was Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami wave of 30 centimeters was detected on the coast of Yonaguni island about 15 minutes after the quake struck.