Rescuers were working on Wednesday to reach five people trapped and more than 170 people unaccounted for in several buildings damaged by a strong earthquake near Taiwan's eastern coast.

At least two people were killed when the shallow and powerful quake caused at least four buildings, including a hotel, to cave in and tilt dangerously in Hualien county.

Video footage and photos showed several midsised buildings leaning at sharp angles, their lowest floors crushed into mangled heaps of concrete, shattered glass, bent iron beams and other debris. Firefighters could be seen climbing ladders hoisted against windows as they sought to reach residents inside apartments.

The quake injured 219 people, two dozen of them critically, in Hualien county, the National Fire Agency said. The force of the tremor buckled roads and disrupted electricity and water supplies to thousands of households.

The quake struck about 22 kms (14 miles) northeast of Hualien - which is home to about 100,000 people - shortly before midnight, and the epicentre was very shallow at just 1km, the USGS said.

Rescue workers block off the area to search for survivors outside a building which tilted to one side after its foundation collapsed in Hualien Credit: AFP

The fire agency said most of the 173 people who could not be reached might be in the Yunmen Cuiti building, a 12-story apartment building, though it said it did not immediately have an estimate of how many were trapped.

A hotel employee died when the ground floor caved in at the Marshal Hotel, and another person died in a residential building, the agency reported.

A maintenance worker who was rescued after being trapped in the hotel's basement said the force of the earthquake was unusual.

"At first it wasn't that big ... we get this sort of thing all the time and it's really nothing. But then it got really terrifying," Chen Ming-hui said after he was reunited with his son and grandson. "It was really scary."

Three British tourists sit outside a collapsed building in Hualien Credit: AFP

Other buildings shifted on their foundations due to the magnitude-6.4 quake late Tuesday and rescuers used ladders, ropes and cranes to get residents to safety.

Taiwanese media reported that a separate hotel known as the Beautiful Life Hotel was tilting. Taiwan's Central News Agency also posted photos showing a road fractured in several parts.

Bridges and some highways were closed pending inspections after buckling due to the force of the quake.

With aftershocks continuing through the night, residents were being directed to shelters, including a newly built baseball stadium, where beds and hot food were provided.

A fireman works at a collapses building after earthquake hit Hualien Credit: Reuters

Speaking from a crisis center in Taipei, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung said rail links appeared to be unaffected and the runway of Hualien airport was intact.

"We're putting a priority on Hualien people being able to return home to check on their loved ones," Hsu said.

Schools and offices in Hualien County were to be closed Wednesday, the official Central News Agency said, citing the county government.

"The president has asked the cabinet and related ministries to immediately launch the 'disaster mechanism' and to work at the fastest rate on disaster relief work," President Tsai Ing-wen's office said in a statement.

Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers part of its territory, is prone to earthquakes.

Some people in Taiwan are still scarred by a 1999 earthquake with 7.6 magnitude whose impact was felt across the island and in which more than 2,000 people died. More recently, an earthquake in 2016 in southern Taiwan left more than 100 dead.