Watch as badminton players flee for their lives as sports centre ceiling COLLAPSES during 6.8 magnitude earthquake

THIS is the terrifying moment the ceiling of a badminton court collapsed during a 6.8 magnitude quake in Taiwan.

Dozens of people were playing on the fifth floor of a sports centre near the capital Taipei shortly before 3pm on Sunday when the massive earthquake hit.

Shocking footage showed the ceiling caving in mid-match, sending players fleeing for their lives with just seconds to spare.

One man was wounded by the falling debris, while everyone else miraculously escaped injured.

The ceiling had reportedly only been renovated in recent days.

Sunday's earthquake was the largest among dozens that have rattled Taiwan's southeastern coast since Saturday evening, when a 6.4 quake struck the same area.

Most of the damage appeared to be north of the epicentre, which was in the town of Chishang at a relatively shallow depth of four miles.

In nearby Yuli town, a cement factory worker was killed and a three-story building, which had a convenience store on the ground floor and flats above it, collapsed.

The 70-year-old owner of the building and his wife were quickly rescued - but it took longer to get to a 39-year-old woman and her 5-year-old daughter.

A photo showed the girl lying on a blanket and being handed down a metal ladder from the top of the debris by helmeted rescue workers in orange uniforms.

More than 7,000 households were without power in Yuli, and water pipes were also damaged.

Shelves and musical instruments toppled over at the Mount Carmel Presbyterian Church and a long crack ran down its floor.

Outside on the street, the pavement was broken up into slabs of concrete from the force of the quake.

Cops and firefighters also rushed to a damaged bridge in a rural part of the same town.

And in the same area, a landslide trapped nearly 400 tourists on a mountain famous for the orange day lilies on its slopes at this time of year.

The stranded group managed to slowly climb down the mountain throughout the night, with the last 90 only making it down on Monday.

Meanwhile, falling debris derailed a train in a town between Yuli and the epicentre at Chishang.

Taiwan's transportation minister said parts of the tracks that buckled during the quake would take up to a month to repair.

The US Tsunami Warning Centre issued a warning in Taiwan following the tremor.

It said tsunami waves were possible within 300 km of the epicentre along the coasts of the island, before the warning was stood down.

Taiwan, which sits in an area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, is frequently hit by earthquakes.

More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.