TAIPEI (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake and subsequent aftershocks rattled Taiwan Wednesday, killing at least three people and triggering rockslides on the island's east-west highway, officials said.

Seismologists at the Central Weather Bureau said the 3:25 a.m. GMT earthquake registered 5.3 on the open-ended Richter scale and was centered 26 miles northeast of Sun Moon Lake near the center of the island.

Five aftershocks followed, the largest measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, the bureau said.

The epicenter was close to a devastating September 21 earthquake measuring between 7.3 and 7.6 on the Richter scale. The killer tremor and a series of strong aftershocks killed 2,400 people and wrecked 52,000 buildings on the island.

Disaster response officials at the Ministry of the Interior said at least three people had been killed, 13 injured and 42 construction workers trapped by rockslides.

Some 42 people, mostly road crews on the east-west highway, were cut off by rockslides and mudslides, the official said.

Taiwan lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin and earthquakes occur frequently.