It was the strongest quake to have jolted Taiwan this year, after the June 10 strike of the 6.5 tremor which originated from the sea off the eastern coast, they said.

One person was injured in a traffic accident in central Mt. Alishan, local television reported. The National Fire Agency reported minor damages but no immediate casualties.

An agency official told AFP that there were some landslides in southern Taiwan and telecommunications systems in some areas were interrupted.

Television reports also said small fires and minor gas leakage had occurred in some southern cities but that the situation was under control.

The powerful tremor struck at 12:38 pm (0438 GMT) with epicenter three kilometers (1.8 miles) west of Cheng Kung in southeastern Taiwan's Taitung county, some 200 kilometers south of taipei.

It originated from 10 kilometers underground, Seismology Center director Kuo Kai-wen said. The tremor shook buildings in Taipei and was felt in other parts of the island, he added.

The 508-meter (1,666-foot) Taipei 101, the world's tallest building under last stage of construction, swayed in the quake but remained intact.

Two quakes measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale and one with a magnitude of 5.0, as well as some 120 other aftershocks - most of them unfelt - followed in two hours after the powerful one struck, Kuo said.

Kuo said the quakes reflected a normal release of energy and said more temblors of 5.0 magnitude or more were likely in the weeks to come.

Taiwan, lying near the junction of two tectonic plates, is prone to earthquakes.

Statistics showed that an average 3.7 tremors with the magnitude of 6.0 and over occurred annually in the past 10 years and an average 40 unfelt tremors happened daily, according to Kuo.

The island suffered its worst quake in a century when a tremor measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan on September 21, 1999 leaving 2,400 people dead.

TERRA.WIRE