BEIJING, China (AA) : At least seven people – including a baby girl – were confirmed dead Saturday after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southern Taiwan, collapsing buildings and injuring hundreds of others.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA), 378 people were reported injured as rescuers searched for more than 30 people believed to be trapped in a 16-story residential building in hardest-hit Tainan City.

More than 250 residents of the structure – which collapsed on its side – have been rescued in Yungkang District, according to the local fire department.

CNA reported that residents in Taiwan’s south and central regions said they experienced tremors resembling those felt in a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 2,400 people.

According to the Central Weather Bureau, the epicenter of Saturday’s earthquake was located at a depth of 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) in neighboring Kaohsiung City’s Meinong District.

It reported that the most powerful tremors, which registered 6 on a seismic scale of 7, had even been felt in Yunlin County, around an hour’s drive to the north of Tainan.

Author Ekip

[Map of Taiwan by CIA World Fact Book for public domain]