Taiwan

Families of missing mainlanders see hopes dim

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-27 07:57

TAIPEI - Relatives of missing mainland tourists on Tuesday were gradually resigning themselves to the fact that their loved ones were almost certainly killed in landslides triggered by Typhoon Megi on Taiwan.

A Taiwan driver, Tsai Chih-ming, missing since Oct 21 after a landslide on the island's eastern coastal Suao-Hualien Highway, was confirmed dead Tuesday, according to the local prosecutors office.

Related readings:  Families of missing mainlanders heading to Taiwan  Death toll from Typhoon Megi in Taiwan rises to 13  Typhoon Megi triggers rockslides in Taiwan  Megi strands over 500 mainland tourists in Taiwan

The rescue team found his remains at a section of the highway Monday, and fingerprint identification confirmed the identity, the office said.

Despite a search lasting more than five days, tour group leader Tian Yuan, from Beijing, who was on the same bus as Tsai, remains missing.

Twenty-one members of a tour group -- 19 mainland tourists from South China's Guangdong province, a local guide and a local driver -- are still missing after their bus was hit by a landslide on the highway on Oct 21.

Near Tsai's remains, rescuers recovered some suspected female remains Monday. The local authority collected DNA samples from Tian's mother Monday noon to help in the identification. Tian's mother and husband, who arrived in Taiwan Saturday, are still awaiting the results.

Thirty-six relatives of the missing Guangdong tourists arrived in Taiwan Monday. Seven of them braved rain and rushed to the site of the landslide in Ilan county Tuesday. They stopped at sections 112.8 km and 114.5 km of the Suao-Hualien Highway to examine the rescue process.

"I'm moved by local rescue workers because they are risking their lives to search for the missing," said missing tourist Wu Rika's sister-in-law, Zhao Hongbing.

"But from what I saw today, I think the local rescue authorities should mobilize more people and use more large machinery. I don't know when we can see our relatives with the current rescue force," she told Xinhua.

In the afternoon, those who went to the site told 29 others, who were unable to make the trip due to bad weather, what they saw.

Terms such as "section 112.8 km, 114.5 km and 116 km" that used to be meaningless to the mainland people, most of whom have not been in Taiwan before, denote "the benchmark of lives of their beloved."

"I was expecting to see my sister alive two days ago, but the chance of finding anybody alive is dim," said Zhou Lifang, sister of missing tourist Zhou Suhua.

"But I'm still waiting for my sister, no matter herself or her body," she told Xinhua. "The rescue team should expand its search areas."

Roget Hsu, secretary-general of the island's Travel Agent Association, said the association respected the appeals the relatives made. "We'll make all-out efforts to expand the searching areas and intensify our efforts to find the missing people."

The local prosecutors authority collected DNA samples from the relatives Tuesday to help in the identification of remains.

Despite the intermittent rain, rescuers continued the search Tuesday, and a helicopter managed to land on the beach below highway section 112.8 km.