Collapsed buildings and shaking structures could be seen in videos and images on social media. A building in Hualien even collapsed on its first floor and was left leaning at a 45-degree angle. Tiles could be seen falling off buildings in, Taipei, Taiwan’s capital.
The island is along a line of seismic faults in the Pacific Ocean where most of Earth’s earthquakes occur, called the "Ring of Fire".
The quake across the island of 23 million people was registered as a 7.2 by Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring bureau and a 7.5 according to the US Geological Survey.
Fox News reported that tremors from the quake could be felt as far away as the Taiwanese island of Kinmen off the coast of China.
Casualty numbers have not yet been released by authorities, but train service was suspended.
After the quake, the US National Tsunami Warning Center said it was reviewing data to determine if there was a tsunami threat to the West Coast of the US and Canada but posted on X shortly thereafter, "Tsunami NOT expected.”
This is a developing story.
