At least 34 people were killed and 11 were missing yesterday as Typhoon Xangsane battered Taiwan with torrential rains after it stormed through the Philippines, National Fire Administration (NFA) officials said.
Winds associated with the typhoon were the worst to strike the island in 30 years, Taiwanese Prime Minister Mr Chang Chun-hsiung said.
The victims included 14 elderly people who drowned in a flooded ground-floor nursing home in the northern county of Keelung and four Taoist followers who died when water inundated their worship site in a basement in the same area, the officials said.