Maintenance crews began clearing the rubble from a southern Taiwan town yesterday, hours after a powerful earthquake struck the area, killing two and triggering a regional tsunami alert.

The quake, which hit late on Tuesday just offshore from the Pingtung County township of Hengchun, came on the second anniversary of the devastating tsunami that took more than 200,000 lives in southern and southeastern Asia.

Two members of one family were killed in the town when their four-storey home collapsed. Six other members of the family were rescued from under the rubble early yesterday.

A total of 42 people were injured in southern Taiwan, the island's fire agency said in a statement. Three houses collapsed, and 12 fires broke out. The power supply to 3,000 homes was disrupted, but was later restored, according to the agency.

The US Geological Survey said the quake, which hit at 8:26 PM, registered magnitude 7.1, while Taiwan's weather bureau measured it at 6.7. It was followed 8 minutes later by an aftershock registering 7.0, the USGS said.

Aftershocks of more than magnitude 5.0 were still likely within a week, said Lu Pei-ling, a spokeswoman for the weather bureau.

The Chinese mainland yesterday expressed condolences to victims of the earthquake, according to Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Meanwhile, the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) sent a letter to the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), expressing solicitude.

It conveys sympathy to the victims' families and all the people affected. "We sincerely hope that people in earthquake-hit areas could restore their normal life as early as possible," it said.

(China Daily December 28, 2006)