TAIPEI - A 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted the sea off Taiwan's Pingtung county at 6:31 pm Thursday Beijing Time, with no casualty reported so far, according to Taiwan's weather bureau.

The epicenter, with a depth of 33 km, was determined to be 22.1 km southeast of Kaohsiung city, the bureau said, adding that the quake was strong felt in the city.

According to the bureau, strong shaking was felt in the city, triggering panics among local residents, but the local fire bureau hadn't received any casualty report. ' ? Operations of two lines of Kaohsiung Rapid Transit were suspended by the quake for roughly an hour before resuming.

Previously, the China Earthquake Networks Center put the magnitude of the quake at 4.4 while the US Geological Survey read 5.1.