At least seven dead as devastating earthquake hits Taiwan

Devastation: The 17-storey apartment block brought down by the tremor EPA

At least seven people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that brought down buildings in the major Taiwanese city of Tainan.

Many of the confirmed fatalities, including a 10-day-old baby girl, happened when a 17-storey apartment block collapsed because of the 6.4 magnitude tremor.

The quake hit on Saturday on the first day of the Chinese New Year holiday celebration. Some 35 people are still feared to be trapped in the rubble hours into the rescue effort.

Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking more than 220 survivors to safety, with dozens taken to hospital, a fire brigade official said.

Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency centre said.

But firefighters said rescue efforts were focused on the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building apartment block.

A 71-year-old neighbour who gave his name as Chang said: "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down.”

The plumber said he user tools and a ladder to prise window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help.

"She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in,” he added. 

“At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them."

Deadly quake: Residents study the devastation wrought by the tremor

The quake’s epicentre was 27 miles south-east of Tainan at the shallow depth of 14 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire".