A cluster of earthquakes struck the island republic of Taiwan early Tuesday, the strongest having a magnitude of 6.1, according to the US Geological Survey.

There were no reports of casualties in the quakes, although there was further damage to two multi-storey buildings that had been evacuated following a magnitude 7.4 quake that hit the island earlier this month, killing 13 people and injuring over 1,000. That earthquake was centred along the coast of the rural and mountainous Hualien County.

It was the strongest earthquake in the past 25 years in Taiwan and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. The quakes on Tuesday are considered the latest of those.

According to the USGS, Tuesday’s quake of 6.1 magnitude had its epicentre 28km south of the city of Hualien, at a depth of 10.7km.

The half-dozen other quakes ranged from magnitude 4.5 to magnitude 6, all near Hualien. Taiwan’s own earthquake monitoring centre put the magnitudes of the initial quake at 6.3. Such small discrepancies are common between monitoring stations.

The largest among them were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 that occurred at 2:26am and 2:32am on Tuesday, respectively, according to the Taiwan centre.

Numerous of scores of aftershocks could be felt on the upper floors of an apartment buildings in the capital Taipei, about 150km across steep mountains to the northwest.

The Full Hotel in downtown Hualien partially collapsed during the quakes and was left leaning at an angle.