A photo released by the Pingtung government yesterday shows flooding caused by typhoon Morakot in Chiatung, in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan. AFP

Survivors rescued from Hsiaolin village in Jiasian township weep as they answer reporters' questions yesterday. CNA

A police officer carries an injured child to a waiting ambulance at a makeshift helipad at a Kaohsiung county school yesterday. CNA

TAIPEI: Rescuers continued their search into the night yesterday, at a mountain village in the southern county of Kaohsiung, where it was feared nearly a thousand people may have been trapped or buried by a rockslide triggered by typhoon Morakot.

"We have so far found 43 people and airlifted 32 of them from Hsiaolin village," said Huang Chi-min, director of the "National Fire Agency".

Huang said the rescue unit dispatched a helicopter to search for survivors after reports that the mountain village was buried by an overnight rockslide. One of the survivors told the rescue unit he believed more than 100 other villagers were either trapped or buried by the rockslide, but according to census authorities, more than 1,000 people had registered their household status in the village.

Huang said the rescue unit would continue to search.

The government said at least 23 people were killed, 56 missing and 32 injured during the worst flooding in half a century. The figures do not take into account the number who may be missing in the village of Hsiaolin.

In the central county of Nantou, police yesterday recovered the body of a man believed to be one of eight victims from five cars that were washed away by flash flood that caved in a section of a riverside road on Sunday.

A major bridge in the southern county of Pingtung collapsed Saturday, sending two vehicles with three people inside plunging into the torrent, police said.

By yesterday, waist-high floodwaters were reported in some low-lying areas in southern and eastern Taiwan after Morakot dumped a record 2,500 millimeters of rains in the region.

The Council of Agriculture yesterday estimated at least NT$4.2 billion ($128 million) in agricultural losses so far. Flood victims would be given long-term low-interest loans to help them rebuild farm facilities and housing, it said. At least 20,432 hectares of farmland was inundated or suffered heavy wind damage in the storm.

Much of the devastation came as mountain rivers broke their banks, causing heavy flooding in lowland areas downstream. The deluge, amounting to 1,403 mm in the Sandimen Mountains of Pingtung county, Saturday, snapped the previous record rainfall for Taiwan of 1,222.5 mm set when typhoon Amber hit Haulien in 1997.

A six-storey resort hotel in the eastern county of Taitung was uprooted Sunday by rushing waters and slammed into the river along with five adjacent restaurants and houses, police said. Tourists and hotel staff had evacuated just before the building collapsed.

DPA

(HK Edition 08/11/2009 page2)