The tremor hit at 1:35 pm (0535 GMT) with an epicenter 19.6 kilometers (11.76 miles) northeast of Ilan, a city in the north part of the island, the Seismology Center said.

The tremor originated 79.3 kilometers below sea level, it said.

"We could feel our building was shaken as the quake hit," an official with the Ilan county government's Fire Bureau told AFP, adding that no casualties were reported.

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

The island suffered its worst quake in a century when a tremor measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit central Taiwan on September 21, 1999, leaving 2,400 people dead and some 100,000 homeless.

TERRA.WIRE