Waves hit the coast as typhoon Sinlaku approaches Nanfangauo. Typhoon Sinlaku lashed Taiwan September 13 with powerful winds and heavy rains across the island that disrupted flights and train services as well as celebrations for a major holiday. [Agencies]

Four cars with an unknown number of passengers were buried in a tunnel hit by a mudslide in central Nantou county, Taiwan Radio reported late Monday. Workers were digging through the debris to rescue those trapped.

A woman was killed when a resort hotel was buried by mudslides in scenic Lushan in central Taiwan, the Disaster Relief Center said.

Soldiers and rescuers in Taichung county searched for five missing people after a section of a 2,000-foot (600-meter) bridge over the Tajia River collapsed Sunday night.

Two cars plunged into the furious river after the water washed part of the bridge away, the center said. Authorities were trying to confirm if a third car also fell into the river as news media reported.

Police recovered one body, identified as a 32-year-old engineer, it said.

The accident occurred just as highway maintenance workers were about to close the bridge to traffic, Transport Minister Mao Chih-kuo said Monday as he inspected it.

A woman told CTI Cable News she was driving on the bridge when it collapsed ahead of her and tried to warn the driver in front. "We honked but his car just plunged down like that without even slowing down," the unidentified woman told the station.

Authorities closed four other bridges Monday because their pillars had cracked or were standing on eroded ground, the center said.

Elsewhere, two people died when their home was buried in a landslide. Another was killed when his car skidded in heavy rain and crashed into a road railing.

A utility company electrician and a farmer were washed away by rampaging flood waters and were still missing, the center said.

Sinlaku slammed into the northeast coast of Taiwan on Sunday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Mountainous regions recorded more than 40 inches (100 centimeters) of rain, and several large rivers overflowed their banks, forcing authorities to evacuate hundreds of people.

Sinlaku, downgraded to a tropical storm, was centered at sea 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Keelung on the northern tip of Taiwan on Monday evening, according to reports. Moving northeast, Sinlaku would likely make landfall in southern Japan by Wednesday.

The storm dumped heavy rain in East China's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces Monday, and 460,000 people have been evacuated, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Some 30,000 fishing boats were ordered to return to the harbor.