A strong earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale has rattled eastern Taiwan, but there are no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 4:38 a.m. Irish time today, was about two miles west of Cheng Kung in Taitung county on the island's southeast coast, at a depth of six miles, the Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.
Taiwan's interior ministry said the Taitung county government reported no damage except mobile phone service outages.
Tremors could be felt as far as the capital city of Taipei, near the island's northern tip.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world's largest contract microchip maker, said it saw no immediate damage at its main facilities in northwestern Taiwan's Hsinchu.
Workers were not evacuated and no power outage occurred, a TSMC official said.
Flat computer screen makers AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics also said their manufacturing plants were operating normally.
Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin.
One of Taiwan's worst recorded quakes occurred in September 1999. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, it killed more than 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged 50,000 buildings.