Strong Taiwan quake kills two, injures 21 A STRONG earthquake that hit Taiwan has left two people dead, one missing and 21 others injured, officials say. The quake, which violently shook buildings in the capital Taipei on Sunday, sent people running into the streets and was also felt in Hong Kong, more than 700 kilometres away. Taiwan's Seismology Centre measured the quake's magnitude at 6.3, while the US Geological Survey put it at 6.2. The tremor hit at 1.43pm, centred 32 kilometres east of the central county of Nantou at a depth of 10 kilometres, followed by a series of aftershocks, the Seismology Centre said. The National Fire Agency said a mountain climber was killed after he was hit by falling rocks on Mount Ali in central Taiwan, while the second victim also died after being knocked down by falling rocks. In Chushan town of Nantou county, rescuers were running against time, digging through tonnes of rubble which buried a male angler. "The rescuers have been working hard to search and rescue the missing person, even though, I'm afraid, the odds of finding him alive is slim," a National Fire Agency official told AFP. Twenty-one people were injured, including three severely, the agency said. Operations at the three nuclear power plants on the island were not affected, according to state-owned Taiwan Power Co. Nantou county was the epicentre of a 7.6-magnitude quake in September 21, 1999 that killed around 2400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's recent history.