REPORTER:  

Items fall off store shelves as a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits Taitung County. The sudden shaking on Wednesday evening gave residents of this area of southeastern Taiwan a scare.

Taitung Resident:

I just immediately held on to my kid.

Taitung Resident:  

I just dropped everything and ran.  

Even if you wanted to run  

there wasn’t enough time.  

By the time we got the emergency alert  

it had already stopped shaking.

REPORTER:  

The earthquake was shallow -- 11.9 kilometers deep – and could be felt 300 kilometers away in the capital, Taipei.

Wu Chien-fu (DIRECTOR, SEISMOLOGICAL CENTER, CENTRAL WEATHER ADMINISTRATION):  

The main cause of the earthquake  

was a collision between the Eurasian Plate  

and the Philippine Sea Plate  

east of Taiwan.  

In fact, 70% of earthquakes in eastern Taiwan  

occur in this region.

REPORTER:  

Transit in Taitung and the southern city of Kaohsiung was temporarily interrupted but returned to normal on Wednesday evening.  

A high school near the epicenter suffered severe damage. The ceiling of the cafeteria collapsed, water pipes burst, and walls of several buildings had huge cracks.

High School Student:  

I was so scared.  

The tree was shaking a lot.

High School Student:  

I was out on the street.  

I thought the ground was splitting  

and I would fall over.

REPORTER:  

Authorities are warning of potential aftershocks of up to magnitude 6 in the next week, with several shallow, but low-intensity quakes already shaking the region overnight.  

With more tremors expected, residents on the east coast are likely to be on alert amid the end-of-year festivities.