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October 24, 2010

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54 tourists rescued as Megi pounds Fujian

ALL 54 tourists from the Chinese mainland who were stranded in Taiwan on Friday night after heavy rains brought by typhoon Megi triggered landslides were lifted out of danger by helicopters yesterday morning.

But 20 other mainland tourists remained missing, Taiwan tourism authorities said.

Among those out of contact are 19 mainland people from a tourist group from Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, and a tour group leader from Beijing. Their buses were hit by mud and rock at a section of the Suao-Hualien Highway on Taiwan's east coast.

The group leader, together with the Taiwan driver, helped the mainland tourists on the bus get to safety before a boulder crushed the bus and sent them down a valley with the vehicle.

Five other Taiwan residents were also missing on the highway, bringing the total number of missing people to 26, said the Taiwan emergency management authority yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, rescuers searching mountainsides yesterday found mangled vehicle parts that were thought to be the bus that was carrying the missing mainland tourists.

Taiwan's transport chief, Mao Chih-kuo, said rescuers found the vehicle parts in a deep valley next to the coastal highway. "The bus was covered with thick mud," the transport official said.

Next to the vehicle was the wreckage of another bus crushed by a huge boulder, but mainland tourists on that bus were able to escape, Mao added.

Disasters caused by Typhoon Megi have claimed 12 lives on the island and buried a Buddhist temple in Ilan County in Taiwan's northeast, where a record 114 centimeters of rain fell over 48 hours.

After leaving Taiwan, Megi, which earlier killed 26 people in the Philippines, made landfall on the southeast coast of the Chinese mainland yesterday afternoon.

Megi pounded Fujian Province, but was downgraded to a strong tropical storm with winds of up to 108 kilometers per hour. TV news footage showed flooded streets, uprooted trees and swollen waterways, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.

So far, the storm has forced the cancellation of nearly 80 flights at the airport in Xiamen, Fujian. Authorities evacuated 272,300 people from villages, according to the provincial water resources department.

News footage from Fujian also showed waves crashing on shore amid steady rain. Residents used ropes to secure street lamps and other objects that could be blown away by the wind. Workers tied down large boats in Zhangpu port.




 

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