TAIPEI: A powerful quake struck southern Taiwan on Thursday, causing panic among residents as buildings shook violently, and triggering power blackouts and halting train services.

The 6.4-magnitude quake hit about 70 kilometres (about 40 miles) from the main southern city of Kaohsiung, the US Geological Survey said, and it was felt as far away as the capital Taipei in the north of the island.

Its epicentre was in Jiahsian township in Kaohsiung county, an area still recovering from a massive typhoon that triggered floods and mudslides in August last year, killing more than 700 people.

"The building was shaking violently and I was really scared. It felt just like a typhoon lashing out," said Chang Shu-yuan, a resident of Kaohsiung city.

It was the biggest earthquake to hit the Kaohsiung area in recent years, the weather bureau reported, and followed massive killer quakes in Chile on Saturday and Haiti in January.

The weather bureau said the initial quake was followed up by six aftershocks.

One person was injured by a falling tree, local television said, but there were no immediate reports of other casualties.

"It felt as if a tank was rolling up," the principal of Hsiao Lin Elementary School, near the epicentre, according to the CTI television network.

No tsunami warning was immediately issued from the quake, which struck at a depth of 35 kilometres (22 miles).

Local television showed footage of cracked walls and falling ceiling panels in Chiayi county. Officials in Jiashian township also told CTI that there was a small landslide in an uninhabited area.

Residents of Kaohsiung rushed out into the streets as buildings started shaking, and were reluctant to re-enter, according to local television.

Services on the Kaohsiung subway were halted, as were trains on the high-speed rail connecting the north and the south of the island, the television reports said.

In the city of Nantou, also on the south of the island, water and power lines were cut, and a group of about 10 people were trapped in an elevator, the televison said.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude quake killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's history.

Most modern buildings in Taiwan are built to withstand earthquakes.

In August, Typhoon Morakot dumped more than three metres (120 inches) of rain on the island, triggering floods and mudslides which swamped houses and buildings, ripped up roads and smashed bridges.

More than 700 people were killed, many of them in Kaohsiung county.