FILE PHOTO: Taiwan’s armed forces hold two days of routine drills to show combat readiness ahead of Lunar New Year holidays at a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Ann Wang
TAIPEI — A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s east coast on Tuesday, the island’s weather bureau said, shaking buildings in the capital Taipei but with no reports of damage.
The epicentre of the earthquake was in the sea off Taiwan’s Hualien county, to the south of Japan’s Yonaguni island, at a depth of 5.7 km (3.5 miles), the weather bureau said.
Trains on Taipei’s metro system slowed down but service quickly resumed as normal, the city government said.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes.
More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.