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More than 400 people were feared dead in Taiwan after a mountain village was hit by a rockslide triggered by Typhoon Morakot.  
The island is reeling from its worst flooding in half a century, and families of victims criticised Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's government yesterday for its handling of the crisis.  
So far authorities have confirmed at least 15 people dead and 55 missing and 32 injured, but that could rise steeply as rescuers search for survivors in Hsiaolin village in the eastern county of Kaohsiung.
The National Fire Agency said 32 people had been airlifted to Kaohsiung city and a further 100 had been found safe on higher ground.
A survivor who had been airlifted away said there were  about 600 people in the village and  most were unaccounted for. TV pictures showed houses buried under mud and rocks.
Authorities planned to send more rescuers to the village today, and a rescue official admitted that nobody was quite sure what had happened in the village or how many people were affected.
Another survivor, identified as Mr Weng, said all his family was gone, including a baby. 'They are all gone, 10 of them, all gone. No more house, and nothing else,' said  Mr Weng, who was working outside his house when the rockslide came.
Mr Ma found himself directly in the firing line yesterday when a mother and son broke through a police cordon to beg him for help.  
He was making an inspection of the eastern county of Taitung, where a number of areas, including a hot-spring resort, were damaged by flash floods and mudslides. A six-storey hotel collapsed and slammed into the river during the flash flood.
'All we need is for the authorities to help us find my husband,' said Mrs Lee, whose tea-farming husband, identified as Lee Han-pang, has been missing since the typhoon slammed into Taiwan on Friday.
'We have reported the case to police, but they didn't even bother to list my father as one of the people unaccounted for,' their son, Lee Yu-ying, said.
Taiwanese television showed an embarrassed Mr Ma telling Mr Lee he fully understood his feelings and would help him, after Mr Lee said he and his entire family had voted for Mr Ma during last year's presidential election. 
Elsewhere, anxious relatives questioned the Ma government's efficiency in dealing with the disaster. 
'Where is the government when we need it to help us?' shouted a Mr Liu, whose family and about 300  residents of Lamahsia village in Kaohsiung were cut off by broken bridges and roads.  
Part of the village was reported to have been buried by a rockslide on Sunday, with at least six people killed.
Mr Ma blamed the weather bureau and the water conservation agency for doing a poor job in dealing with the disaster.
He questioned the accuracy of the Central Weather Bureau in predicting the rainfall. He also demanded to know what the Water Resources Agency had done with its annual NT$10 million (HK$2.35 million) flood-prevention budget.
Record disaster
Taiwan was struck by its worst floods in half a century
Number of people feared dead after a landslide in Hsiaolin village: 400



Hundreds feared dead in Taiwan as mud and rocks bury village