More than 1,500 residents have been left without homes and dozens are injured, with facility damage piling up after a magnitude 5.4 quake struck South Korea's southeast yesterday afternoon, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported authorities as saying.

The rare earthquake, second-strongest since 1978, hit north of the port city of Pohang.

Tremors were felt as far as Seoul, hundreds of kilometres away, with 41 aftershocks of up to magnitude 4.3 continued until early this morning, to the state weather agency said.

The tally of victims displaced from their homes and staying in emergency shelters set up in nearby indoor gyms reached 1,536 as of 6am, the authorities said in Seoul today.

Fifty-seven people sustained injuries, with two in critical condition and a dozen being treated at hospitals. The rest are stable and have returned home.

The authorities received nearly 1,200 calls reporting facility damage in the area. The bulk of them came from residential buildings, while others were from business districts and factories, as well as public infrastructure including schools, roads and railways. Most of them were about fissures, collapses and breakages.

PM chairs emergency meeting

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon presided over an emergency meeting of government agencies this morning to discuss efforts to recover from the natural disaster, Yonhap reported.

"First of all, what's urgent is to recover from the damage and to ease the inconvenience of Pohang citizens," Lee said at the start of the meeting attended by ministers and senior officials from 10 government agencies, including the interior ministry and the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Lee stressed that recovery efforts should be based on the actual situation on the ground and that the Pohang city government should lead those efforts while the provincial and central governments work together.

He called for an early execution of state recovery funds.

The prime minister also ordered nuclear power plant operators to be on alert in case of emergency as aftershocks continued. The nearby region is home to a few nuclear power reactors, but they are undamaged and functioning normally.

The government also postponed the annual college entrance exam scheduled for today.

- Bernama