400 missing after Taiwan storm causes mudslide

A Taiwanese police official says an estimated 400 people remain unaccounted for in a mountainous village that was struck by a mudslide spawned by Typhoon Morakot.

The official, surnamed Wang, says about 100 people have been rescued by military helicopter or otherwise avoided the impact of yesterday morning's mudslide in Shiao Lin village in the south of the island.

Today's United Evening News quotes one of the rescued villagers, Lin Chien-chung, as saying he believes that 600 people were buried in the mudslide and "that it covered a large part of the village."

Taiwan's official death toll from Morakot stands at 14. Another 51 — not including the people in Shiao Lin — are listed as missing.