6 dead in Taiwan floods and 6,000 evacuated after 1,000mm of rainfall
Tropical depression has brought torrential rain to central and southern parts of the island since Thursday, with 1,100 still in shelters
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Six people have been killed by floodwaters in Taiwan, officials said on Saturday, after days of heavy rain forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
A tropical depression has been dumping torrential rain in central and southern Taiwan since Thursday, with some districts receiving close to 1,000mm (39 inches) of rainfall.
The tropical depression is moving away from Taiwan, but continued to bring rain on Saturday.
Six have died in the storm so far, according to government figures, including three who were killed by a falling scaffold in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Almost 100 more were injured.
More than 6,000 people were evacuated with more than 1,100 still in shelters on Saturday morning, officials said.
An extremely heavy rain warning was issued for Pingtung county and heavy rain warnings for the rest of Taiwan, except for the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu.
Images showed residents in Kaohsiung and nearby Tainan wading in knee-deep water, as well as soldiers in central Chiayi county carrying elderly residents and children from their flooded homes.
Although the depression has already moved northwest away from Taiwan, floods have yet to recede in many areas.
Taiwan’s weather bureau said the severity of the downpour was “extremely rare”.
The island is frequently hit by typhoons in the summer. Last year more than 100 people were injured when Typhoon Nesat battered the island, causing flooding and widespread power outages.
The typhoon caused the closure of train services, highways and ferry services, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Communications and Transportations.
Most train services on the West Coast Line had been suspended on Friday due to flooding of the tracks, while the Jiji Line in the central counties of Changhua and Nantou had been closed due to rockfalls.
