Bereaved families say goodbye to typhoon victims

With some wiping their eyes, some folding their arms, bereaved families of 20 mainland tourists killed by Typhoon Megi whispered farewell to their loved ones yesterday.

The relatives, who are to return to Guangdong this morning, gathered at a public memorial ceremony at a funeral parlour in Taipei to pay their last respects to the victims.

'That's the least we must do,' said a teary relative of Zheng Shaochi during a break in the ceremony. Pictures of the 20 hung up high in a line along the front wall of the funeral home's memorial hall, with fresh flowers strung around them.

Zheng and 17 other tourists from Guangdong went missing on October 21 after their bus had been hit by rockslides triggered by the typhoon during a trip on the Suao-Hualien Highway on the northeastern coast of Taiwan. Except for the relatives of another victim, Gong Yan , whose torso was found in the sea 8.5 nautical miles from the highway, relatives were to return home without the remains of their loved ones.

Man Hongwei, secretary general of the mainland's Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association, said after the ceremony: 'We spent the past days waiting in anguish. What we've got is such a heart-breaking result today. We are all in deep sorrow.'

The relatives went to the collapsed sections of the highway yesterday morning to take a final glance at the place where their loved ones disappeared. The ritual was held earlier in the day some kilometres from the accident site as the local authorities were worried about the relatives' safety as pouring rain once again created mudslides around the site on Wednesday night.

According to Yao Ta-kuang, chairman of Taiwan's Association of Travel Agents, after the memorial service, the relatives, who arrived in Taiwan on October 25, would collect the funeral tablets at a Taipei hospital before returning home this morning.