Taiwan flooding :

Over 100 feared buried alive, 38 dead

TAIWAN: Around 100 villagers are feared to have been buried alive in a mudslide in southern Taiwan, officials said Tuesday as the death toll from Typhoon Morakot’s record-breaking rain climbed to 38.

Taiwan’s worst flooding in half a century had left another 62 people missing, not counting the disaster in the remote village of Hsiaolin, the government’s National Fire Agency said.

“About 100 people may have been buried alive (in Hsiaolin),” the agency, which coordinates search and rescue operations, said after the first relief workers were helicoptered into the village.

Tales of individual heroism emerged, as rescue missions moved into full swing across Taiwan with authorities rushing out helicopters to remote areas cut off by fallen bridges or raging rivers.

Some 35 people were also listed as injured after the powerful typhoon lashed the island with a record three metres (118 inches) of rain over the weekend, submerging houses and whole streets.

Reports said up to 600 people were still trapped in Hsiaolin but authorities would not confirm the number, saying only that roughly half the village’s 200 houses had been swamped by the mudslide.

All roads and bridges linking the village to the world outside were cut off by landslides and the only access was by helicopter. “My house is gone.

Chishan, Tuesday, AFP