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An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude struck Taiwan on Thursday shaking high-rise buildings but there were no reports of casualties or major damage, residents and media said.
The quake struck the sparsely populated, mostly rural east coast of the island, 45 km (28 miles) southwest of the town of Hua-lien, at a depth of 9.3 km (5.8 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
“I was working on my computer when all of a sudden my bed started shaking violently,” said student Max Chang. “I rushed to the door with my mother to make sure we had a way to escape if we needed to.”
Media reported some people were trapped in lifts and there was some brief disruption to train services in the island’s main city of Taipei. But it said there were no reports of injuries. Taiwan lies along the so-called Ring of Fire around the Pacific and experiences regular earthquakes.
In September 1999, a 7.6 quake on the island killed about 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged numerous buildings.
