Chilling footage filmed on a dashcam caught the moment a devastating earthquake struck Taiwan.
At least seven people are reported to have died and more than 700 people have been injured in the earthquake, which struck in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County just before 8am local time today (3 April).
The US Geological Survey put the earthquake at a magnitude of 7.4, while Taiwan's earthquake monitoring agency reported it as a 7.2, and Japan's meteorological agency put it at 7.7.
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The earthquake is the strongest the country has seen in 25 years, when a 7.6-magnitude quake in 1999 killed 2,400 people and injured 10,000.
The moment the ground began to rock back and forth was captured on the dashcam of a car, which was driving down a main road amid the morning traffic.
In the footage, vehicles in front of the camera could be seen shaking violently as the drivers hit the brakes and came to a standstill.
A bus on one side of the road rocked particularly dramatically, though thankfully the quake didn't appear to impact the surrounding infrastructure.
However, a number of buildings collapsed as a result of the earthquake, and a small tsunami hit some coastal areas of Japan, though warnings were later lifted.
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The footage shows the quake continue for more than 30 seconds, while drivers sat in their cars and waited for it to end.
Hsien-hsuen Keng, a resident of the capital Taipei, said she'd grown 'accustomed' to earthquakes as they're a 'common occurence' in the country, but this one was different.
"Today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake," she said, according to Sky News. "I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before."
Keng said her fifth-floor apartment shook so hard that 'apart from earthquake drills in elementary school, this was the first time [she] had experienced such a situation'.
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A number of people have had to be rescued from collapsed buildings following the quake, while Taiwan’s Centre for Science and Technology (CST) said both people and vehicles were trapped in the Dachingshui tunnel, with rescue operations ongoing.
Mike Hung Hsu, a US resident who was staying in a hotel in Taiwan when the earthquake struck, said he'd 'never felt this kind of earthquake' either in LA or in Taiwan.
“I used to live in Taiwan, in my memory we never had an earthquake like this one," he said, per The Guardian.
Japan's meteorological agency is now urging people to be 'vigilant' for potential aftershocks, which could hit with a similar intensity for about a week after the first quake.
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