14 killed, 152 missing in Taiwan after barrier lake burst

TAIPEI

At least 14 people were killed when a decades-old lake barrier burst in Taiwan, a government official said Wednesday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rain.

The lake in eastern Hualien county, formed by series of landslides that created a natural dam wall, burst on Sept. 23, washing away a bridge and sweeping into a town with a trail of thick sludge and mud.

"It was like a volcano erupting.... the muddy floodwaters came roaring straight into the first floor of my house," Hsu Cheng-hsiung, 55, a neighborhood leader of Kuang Fu township, told AFP.

Lee Kuan-ting, a Hualien County Government press official, said 14 people were killed and 18 injured.

According to the National Fire Agency, at least 152 people are missing in Hualien and elsewhere in Taiwan.

"It was a disaster movie," a local resident Yen Shau, 31, told AFP.

He said an hour before the lake burst, many people were still at the local supermarket and grocery store.

"Within minutes, the water had risen to halfway up the first floor," he said.

He said he couldn't sleep Sept. 23 night for fear of another deluge from the lake, and on Wednesday was shoveling mud from his home.

Footage released by the fire agency showed flooded streets, half-submerged cars and uprooted trees.

Across Taiwan, more than 7,600 people were evacuated due to Typhoon Ragasa.

Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from July to October.