The tremor struck under the ocean, 165.7 kilometers southeast of the Hualien City earthquake observation center, at 2:10 p.m., the Central Weather Bureau said. The epicenter was located at a depth of 15.5 kilometers.

The shock was felt all over Taiwan, including in Taipei and Kaohsiung where tall buildings swayed for about a minute, reports said. The quake registered an intensity of three along the east coast, in parts of the counties of Hualien, Taitung and Ilan, the bureau said.

Later reports said more than ten people in ten cars had been cut off from the outside after rocks fell on a road in Nantou County. Nobody was injured, but police said they found the road covered by rocks over a length of more than 30 meters. Because the first bulldozer which arrived at the scene was not up to the task, the travelers would have to wait until Monday before they could leave the scene, police said.

The tremor was the biggest to hit Taiwan since a 6.9 quake hit 21 kilometers from Hualien City on December 19.

Each year, about three quakes of a magnitude over 6 hit Taiwan. In 1999, about 2,400 people died when a magnitude-7.3 temblor struck Central Taiwan’s Nantou County.