Taipei - Rescue workers in Taiwan searched on Tuesday for villagers trapped by mudslides caused by Typhoon Morakot, as lawmakers urged President Ying-jeou to issue an emergency order to coordinate search and rescue efforts. Military helicopters on Tuesday morning airlifted 109 people from mountain villages in Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan, but some 2,000 villagers were still waiting for rescue and up to 1,000 were feared buried alive.
A search team on Tuesday walked several hours along destroyed and flooded roads to Liukui to rescue villagers in Kaohsiung County, and found 26 bodies lying among fallen rocks.
"Give us body bags. We must get the bodies out first," Su Ting-kuo, head of the team, said on cable TV channel CTI TV.
As of Tuesday, Typhoon Morakot - which slammed Taiwan Friday and Saturday - had left at least 41 dead, 35 injured and 60 missing, according to the National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission.
But the death toll is expected to rise as hundreds of villagers in southern Taiwan remain unaccounted for.
Agriculture damage totaled 6.8 billion Taiwan dollars (206 million US dollars), making it the fourth most costly natural disaster in the island's history, the Council of Agriculture said.
Several lawmakers urged President Ma to issue an emergency order to coordinate rescue efforts and launch post-typhoon re-construction.
Ma on Tuesday continued to inspect disaster areas in southern Taiwan, instructing officials to find out the cause of the flooding and mudslides, and to speed up rescue efforts.
"The most important thing now is to save lives, so we have to rush relief goods to those trapped. After that we can consider how to rebuild," he said.
