Asian shares tumbled in Tuesday morning trade, as US stocks suffered their worst falls in more than six years on Monday in a sell-off sparked by concerns of higher interest rates, media reports said.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 4.3 per cent down at 30860.26, while the Shanghai composite crashed 2.1 per cent, said a CNBC report.

"There's really nowhere to hide. If you review the market, across the board, there is very heavy selling pressure," Hao Hong, chief strategist at China's Bank of Communications was quoted as saying in the report.

Hong recommended watching for dangers rather than potential gains in the near-term, although bonds — particularly government bonds — and gold appeared to be safe havens.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 5.26 per cent, or 1,194.21 points, as stocks across sectors pulled back. Automakers, financials and technology names were lower in the morning, with Toyota down 3.47 per cent, the report said.

Volatility indexes measuring the fear factor in Chinese markets spiked on Tuesday with the HSI Volatility Index up as much as 52 per cent from its previous close. The CBOE China ETF Volatility Index was up as much as 18 per cent, reported CNBC.

The Chinese markets were already "more volatile than usual" over the last few weeks, Samuel Siew, a Singapore-based investment analyst at Phillips Futures was quoted as saying in the CNBC report.

The earlier gyrations were due to the results season of Chinese and Hong Kong companies, as well as a renewed and sweeping crackdown on financial irregularities on the mainland, Siew added to CNBC.