People in Pingtung rushed into the streets in panic after the quake, the strongest this year, triggered power blackouts and small fires, television reports said.

High-rise buildings all over Taiwan were rattled and telephone services in southern parts of the island were disrupted.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck 10 kilometres (six miles) under the sea, 57 miles from Kao-hsiung, Taiwan.

The Taiwan central weather bureau reported there was one large quake and a series of smaller ones.

It said the stronger tremor struck at 8:26 pm (1226 GMT), with its epicenter 23 kilometres southwest of Hengchun in Pingtung county in the southernmost tip of Taiwan. It originated 22 kilometres under the sea.

The second and third quakes hit Pingtung about eight minutes and 14 minutes later, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 5.2 respectively.

A fourth occurred in the same area at 23:41 pm with a magnitude of 5.5.

Another hit almost two hours later at 01:35 am, the US Geological Survey reported, with a 5-4 magnitude, about 95 kilometres from Kao-hsiung and just six kilometres under the water.

Taiwan, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, is regularly shaken by earthquakes. The country's worst, a 7.6-magnitude quake, killed some 2,400 people in September 1999.

earlier related report
Quake triggers Asian tsunami alert
Manila (AFP) Dec 26 - A major 7.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Taiwan on Tuesday set off a tsunami warning in the Pacific but there were no immediate reports of significant damage. The quake came two years to the day after the Asian tsunami disaster, as jittery nations were remembering the devastation that left 220,000 people dead across the region.

The US Geological Survey reported two quakes, one of 7.1 magnitude and one of 7.0 magnitude.

An undersea quake reportedly hit at 8:26 pm (1226 GMT) just off the southern tip of Taiwan, where authorities reported three more tremblors, measuring 6.4, 5.2 and 5.5 in magnitude respectively, following the first.

Almost two hours later yet another struck in the same area, the US Geological Survey reported, measuring 5.4.

A 34-year-old man in Taiwan died when a furniture shop collapsed in southern Pingtung county after the first quake, rescue officials said. Seven others were also initially trapped in the shop, and two of them, including a boy, were still waiting to be rescued. At least 29 others were injured.

Taiwanese television reports showed people in the city of Pingtung rushing into the streets in panic. High-rise buildings across the island were rattled and telephone services in southern Taiwan were disrupted.

Japanese authorities said a one-metre (three-foot) tsunami could be headed toward the Philippines, although the concern later subsided, while the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cautioned nations in the region to be on alert.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency said the quake was "able to trigger" a one-metre high tsunami that would be on course to hit Basco in the northern Philippines.

"But since it's been nearly two hours since the quake without any tsunami being observed, the possibility is declining," an agency official said.

The epicentre of the undersea quake was believed to be just 23 kilometres (14 miles) off the southernmost point of the island of Taiwan, not far from the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung.

Taiwan, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, is regularly shaken by earthquakes. The country's worst-ever quake, 7.6 in magnitude, killed some 2,400 people in September 1999.

The latest quakes came two years to the day after a massive 9.3-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia set off massive tsunamis that battered countries around the region, leaving around 220,000 people dead.

It was one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

After Tuesday's alert, there was some immediate confusion about the strength and danger to the region.

In the Philippines the earthquake set objects swaying in the Batanes islands and in the northern half of the main island of Luzon, but there were no immediate reports of casualites or damage.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said they received a tsunami warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but that it was later cancelled.

Annie Onie, a tourism aide in Basco, told AFP: "The first we heard of the tsunami was on the news. There was no panic and noone was evacuated from low-lying areas as far as I know."

Basco resident Oliver Hidalgo said that after the quake, "I went down to the pier (to check for a tsunami) but saw nothing unusual."

In Vietnam, authorities called for a huge stretch of its coastline to be evacuated, but later cancelled the advice.

Residents of the 1,500 kilometre stretch of coast, running from the centre of the country to its southernmost point, were urged to move to between 300 and 500 metres from the shoreline and seek out higher ground.

But the warning was lifted an hour later.

Taiwan's central weather bureau said it only issued tsunami warnings when earthquakes measured more than 7.0 magnitude, and Taiwanese officials said the largest had measured less than that.

In Hong Kong, residents said they felt their high-rise buildings shake gently around the time the largest quake was said to have hit.

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