Only minor damage and injuries were reported in the strongest quake to have jolted Taiwan this year after a tremor measuring 6.5 on June 10.

The 508-meter (1,666-foot) Taipei 101, the world's tallest building nearing completion, swayed in the quake but remained intact.

"Our building swayed for at least 40 seconds," a fireman in the southeastern county of Taitung told AFP in a telephone interview.

"Some people ran on the streets to seek shelters," he said. "It could be the most powerful quake to hit Taitung area over the past 30 years."

One person was injured in a traffic accident in central Mt. Alishan, local television reported. The National Fire Agency, which coordinates national rescue missions, reported minor damage but no casualties.

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

The powerful tremor struck at 12:38 pm (0438 GMT) with its epicenter three kilometers (1.8 miles) west of Cheng Kung in southeastern Taiwan's Taitung county, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital.

Seismology Center director Kuo Kai-wen said the tremor shook buildings in Taipei and was felt in other parts of the island.

Five quakes with a magnitude of at least 5.0, as well as some 400 other aftershocks - most of them unfelt - followed in the seven hours after most powerful tremor, Kuo said.

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, 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