Mainland tourists bear brunt of typhoon's fury in Taiwan

Mainland tourists travelling in northeastern Taiwan were the biggest group of people affected by landslides and flash floods when Severe Typhoon Megi sideswiped the island. By last night the death toll on Taiwan was 12.

Of 435 people stranded on a mountain highway seriously damaged by rockslides, 274 were from the mainland. Twenty of them, including a woman tour leader from Beijing, remained unaccounted for last night.

Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, caused serious damage in Taiwan on Thursday. It then swirled towards the mainland, landing as a typhoon in Fujian province yesterday and becoming a severe tropical storm.

Following reports of landslides on many sections of Taiwan's Suao-Hualien Highway on Thursday afternoon, rescuers have been searching for the missing tourists along the rock-covered road, which links the scenic mountain sites of Taroko and Ilan in northeastern Taiwan.

Yesterday a team made up of rescuers and military personnel found a green bumper suspected to be part of a tour bus carrying 19 tourists from Guangdong as well as the bus driver and tour leader from Taiwan.

'The search team found a green bumper, but we have yet to be able to confirm whether it came from the missing coach,' Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah said. 'There were no signs of any passengers around, too,' Jiang said.