600 people missing after typhoon hits Taiwan

August 10, 2009

As many as six hundred villagers from the island of Taiwan are missing after torrential rains from Typhoon Morakot caused mudslides, according to state media.

Taiwanese authorities said that approximately a hundred people were rescued after a portion of a mountain started to slump and flooded the village of Shiao Lin in the south of the country.

"The mudslide covered a large part of the village, including a primary school and many homes. A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village," said a rescued villager, Lin Chen-chung.

Several Villages Taitung County also suffered severe flooding caused by the rains. A five-story hotel building along the river in Taitung has collapsed due to the raging flood.

In some areas of the country, the storm dumped as much as two metres of water. Morakot has resulted in the deaths of at least fourteen people in Taiwan and a further 22 deaths in the Philippines.