A shallow earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported, a short distance from where a strong quake left dozens of people dead a year ago. The epicentre of the moderate 5.6-magnitude quake was 19 kilometres (12 miles) from Tainan city where a 6.4 quake last February toppled an apartment complex, burying scores of people and killing more than 30.
Friday's earthquake struck at a depth of nine kilometres, 23 kilometres north-north-west of the island's second-largest city of Kaohsiung, the USGS said in a statement. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. The island's worst tremor in recent decades was a 7.6 magnitude quake in September 1999 that killed around 2,400 people.