One more body found as Taiwan searches for typhoon missing

Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, is now known to have killed at least 13 people in Taiwan as it churned towards southeastern China.

Emergency workers dug up nine bodies buried under the debris of a temple swamped by mudslides, while two more were found in houses and one in a port in northeastern Ilan county, the National Fire Agency said.

On Sunday, rescuers discovered the body of a woman at the site of a landslide along the highway, also in Ilan county, a rescue official told reporters.

Relatives later identified the victim as a teacher from a school for handicapped children.

Besides nine killed by a massive landslide that hit the Bai Yun temple in Suao Township, three more deaths were reported as of 5:00 p.m., yesterday.

One of the three was an old woman, named Chang Yu A-ya, who was found in her flooded house located on Chungshan Road of Suao Township. An old veteran, named Chen Chao-kun, was also found dead in his own house on Lengchuan Road of the same township.

In addition, a floating female corpse was found near the Suao military harbor, who was identified as an employee at a convenience store in Suao Township.

The CEOC also reported that there were 26 people — 19 Chinese tourists, a Chinese tour guide, a Taiwanese tour guide and two Taiwanese tour bus drivers — still unaccounted for.

Among the three other missing Taiwanese people was the driver of a personal vehicle, identified as Liu Yun-chun. The other two were a couple driving a small truck, identified as Hsu Chih-jung and his wife Lin Chin-chu.

By around 7 p.m., the small truck had been found by rescuers, but the whereabouts of the couple remained unknown. The car and one of the two tour buses were still missing.

Rescuers yesterday discovered a green bumper, which was suspected to be part of a tourist bus rented by Harlula Tour Travel Service. All the 19 Chinese tourists, Taiwanese driver Kuo Ming-lin and both tour guides aboard the bus remained missing.

Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah preliminarily ruled out the possibility of the Harula bus being washed down into the sea by the mudslide. "It is quite impossible for the vehicle to be directly flushed into the sea," he said.

1|2|Next Page>>

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email