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Rescuers combed through the rubble of collapsed buildings as they launch a desperate search for the missing people after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck near the popular Taiwanese tourist city.
Emergency workers surrounded a damaged military hospital in the area, the windows have collapsed and the building was wedged into the ground at a bizarre 40-degree angle.
Manager of a restaurant near the hospital, Lin Ching-wen, said: "We were still open when it happened.
“I grabbed my wife and children and we ran out and tried to rescue people.”
Taiwanese media reported that a separate hotel known as the Beautiful Life Hotel was tilting.
Rescuers worked their way around and through the building while residents looked on from behind cordoned-off roads.
A maintenance worker who was rescued after being trapped in the hotel’s basement said the force of the quake was unusual.
He said: "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.
“It was really scary.”
Many of those were believed to be still trapped inside buildings, including a military hospital, after the quake hit about 22 km (14 miles) northeast of Hualien on Taiwan's east coast.
Residents waited and watched anxiously as emergency searched for residents trapped in apartment blocks.
Hualien is home to about 100,000 people. Its streets were buckled by the force of the quake, with around 40,000 homes left without water and more than 600 without power.
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A video shows large cracks in the road, while police and emergency services tried to help anxious people roaming the streets.
Aftershocks continued through the night and residents were directed to shelters.
Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung said: "We're putting a priority on Hualien people being able to return home to check on their loved ones.”
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President Tsai Ing-wen went to the scene of the quake early on Wednesday to help direct rescue operations.
Tsai's office said in a statement: ”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.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker and major Apple supplier, said initial assessments showed no impact from the earthquake.
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Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers part of its territory, lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck nearby on Sunday.
More than 100 were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, and some Taiwanese remain scarred by a 7.6 magnitude quake that was felt across the island and killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.
