Multiple gas pipeline explosions have ripped through the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 270, officials say.

The explosions sparked a massive inferno that blazed through the city's Cianjhen district, with witnesses reporting bodies lying on the streets.

Authorities are warning the death toll is expected to rise.

"We will make further arrangements and inspections to avoid this kind of disaster from occurring again," President Ma Ying-jeou said in comments shown on local television.

The explosions, believed to have been triggered by gas leaks, were powerful enough to leave the area battered, smashing cars and ripping open paved roads.

The blasts felt like an "earthquake", one eyewitness told the local FTV cable news channel.

Wreckage of a damaged car after an explosion in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. ( Reuters )

Wounded carried through streets

Residents were seen carrying the injured on makeshift stretchers as ambulances rushed to the scene and firefighters in yellow overalls began removing bodies from the area.

The National Fire Agency said the dead included four firefighters and put the number of injured at around 240, adding that they were being rushed to various hospitals in the city.

Premier Jiang Yi-huah earlier told reporters that at least five people, including a firefighter, were feared dead in the explosions.

Authorities said they had received calls from residents in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen district about suspected gas leaks.

"The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday and then there were a series of blasts around midnight affecting an area of two to three square kilometres," the fire agency said in a statement.

Local media reported that emergency rooms in Kaohsiung city hospitals were packed with casualties.

Officials urged people to stay out of the affected areas and local schools were reopened for people to take shelter.

Thursday's inferno comes just a week after a TransAsia Airways plane crash in Taiwan left 48 people dead.

In 1996 a gas explosion in Taipei county wounded 12 people and damaged more than 100 houses.

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Wires