More than 700 people are trapped, possibly dead, in two southern Taiwan villages engulfed by mudslides after Typhoon Morakot swamped the island, official sources said yesterday.

Media reports said three were killed aboard a helicopter that crashed during a rescue mission.

On the mainland, two people died and four were injured in a landslide late Monday in China's typhoon-swept eastern Zhejiang province, firefighters said yesterday.

As of yesterday, Typhoon Morakot had killed eight people on the Chinese mainland and forced some 1.57 million people to be relocated, the government said.

In Taiwan, the death toll from Morakot was confirmed to be 50, with 58 people listed as missing, not including residents in Shiao Lin, a village of 1,000 in mountainous Kaohsiung county, whose fate has been unclear since Sunday's mudslide.

With roads cut off by mudslides and surging water, helicopters provided the only means of getting to missing residents of Hsiao Lin.

Hu Jui-chou, an army major-general involved in rescue operations, said those trapped included people buried by a massive landslide in Hsiao Lin.

Many were also trapped in a second village, Namahsia.

"Trapped means they could be dead or alive," Hu said by telephone.


"It very likely covers people buried in the Hsiao Lin mudslide."

Survivor Lee Chin-long, 50, said he watched as walls of mud and rock wiped out most of the village, home to 1,000 people.

"I was watching from my house upstairs. The whole mountain just fell off. When I saw that, I started to run," said Lee, speaking from a shelter in the nearby town of Cishan, the hub of rescue operations.

"Almost every house was gone," he said.

Military officers running operations said helicopter missions had found very few survivors though Taiwan's disaster agency said about 100 villagers had been rescued.

A group of 16 mainland tourists, who had been stranded on Alishan mountain in southern Taiwan because of blocked roads leading down the mountain, were brought to safety around noon yesterday, according to the Alishan National Scenic Area Administration.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday that the island continues to experience high winds.

The Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday expressed its sympathy to people on the mainland who suffered from the typhoon.

In a letter sent to the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), the SEF thanked ARATS for its concern over Taiwan's losses.

SEF said it hoped people on both sides can rebuild their homes and resume normal life as soon as possible.

The Chinese Red Cross Society has offered to send help and relief to Taiwan in the wake of the massive destruction, the Red Cross Society of Taiwan said yesterday.

Chen Hua, president of the Fujian chapter of the Chinese Red Cross Society, who was in Taiwan, donated 1 million yuan ($146,286,000) to the relief effort during a visit to Taiwan's Red Cross Society in Taipei Monday.

Source:Reuters-China Daily