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Over 600 dead, missing in Taiwan as army digs for bodies

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-21 16:10

TAIPEI: More than 600 people were listed dead or missing in Taiwan Friday after one of the island's worst typhoons as soldiers began digging up bodies buried deep under rocks and mud.

Taiwan's disaster centre has logged 153 deaths since Typhoon Morakot as well as 464 people missing and feared buried in landslides that wiped out parts of villages in the island's southern mountains.

A destroyed home lies partially submerged in a river in Gaushu township after Typhoon Morakot swept through Pingtung county, southern Taiwan August 14, 2009. [Agencies]

The island's leader Ma Ying-jeou received a pledge from the army to start digging up bodies per survivor requests, his spokesman said.

"He knows it's hard, but he hopes it can be done," spokesman Tony Wang said as Ma visited villages where relatives searched for family under landslides tens of metres thick that had wiped out houses.

Related readings:  Taiwan charts its course to post-typhoon recovery  Tianjin donates 40 m for Taiwan Morakot victims  Taiwan approves $3 billion for reconstruction  Mainland to help Taiwan minorities in typhoon's wake  Hu expresses condolences for typhoon victims in Taiwan  Fujian helps out Morakot-stricken Taiwan compatriots

Hsinkai, a village where 32 are feared buried, will be unearthed within a week, army officer Hu Jui-chou said.

But survivors from the hardest-hit village of Hsiao Lin, where hundreds are presumed buried, have not decided whether they want the army to dig for bodies, Wang said.

Ma has said his administration would investigate the government response to Morakot by early September and come up with names of those held responsible.

The typhoon also destroyed part of the infrastructure in southern Taiwan, including 260 segments of road.