TAIPEI, April 3 (Reuters) - An earthquake offshore

Taiwan with a magnitude of 7.2 rocked Taipei, the capital, on

Wednesday morning, knocking out power in several parts of the

city and sparking a tsunami warning for the islands of southern

Japan and the Philippines.

Taiwan television stations showed footage of some

collapsed buildings in Hualien, near the quake's epicentre, and

media reported some people were trapped.

The quake could be felt as far as Shanghai, according to a

Reuters witness.

The epicentre was just off the coast of eastern county of

Hualien, in waters off eastern coastline of Taiwan Island, the

Taiwan central weather administration said.

Japan issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas of

the southern prefecture of Okinawa. Tsunami waves of up to 3

metres were expected to reach large areas of Japan's

southwestern coast, according to the Japan Meteorological

Agency, which put the quake magnitude at 7.5.

The Philippines Seismology Agency also issued a warning

for residents in coastal areas of several provinces, urging them

to evacuate to higher ground.

The quake was felt in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Ningde in

China's Fujian province, according to Chinese state media.

The Taipei city government has not received any reports of

damage and the city's MRT was up and running soon after.

Southern Taiwan Science Park, where semiconductor giant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ) has a plant,

said companies were operating without impact.

Taiwan's official central news agency said the quake was the

biggest to hit the island since 1999 when a 7.6 magnitude tremor

killed around 2,400 people.