A total of 62 people were confirmed dead in Taiwan and 58 were listed as missing, not counting the mudslide victims,
Typhoons pummelling East Asia have killed at least 85 people, with rescuers in Taiwan battling to find survivors of a mudslide that may have buried about 100 villagers.
A total of 62 people were confirmed dead in Taiwan and 58 were listed as missing, not counting the mudslide victims, after Typhoon Morakot unleashed the island's worst flooding in half a century over the weekend.
At least 23 were killed as landslides and flooding left a trail of destruction in China and Japan, where officials feared more damage after a powerful earthquake loosened rain-soaked ground southwest of Tokyo.
A helicopter carrying three rescue personnel involved in typhoon relief efforts crashed in heavy fog in southern Taiwan, an official said, without giving details of casualties.
The Taiwanese government's National Fire Agency said "about 100 people may have been buried alive" in the remote village of Hsiaolin, which could only be reached by helicopter with all road access to the mountainous area severed.
Rescuers said they had airlifted roughly 500 people to safety in southern Taiwan, including about 70 from Hsiaolin.
One Hsiaolin survivor, Wong Ruei-chi, said he had lost 10 relatives in the mudslide.
"I've lived in the village for 46 years and I had seen strong winds and rain, but I've never seen anything as terrible as this," he told the Apple Daily newspaper.
Morakot lashed Taiwan with three metres of rain over the weekend, submerging entire streets and bringing down bridges, said the fire agency.
Rescue missions were in full swing with authorities rushing out supplies by helicopter to cut-off areas in the centre and south of the island.
In Pingtung county in southern Taiwan, thousands of people remained trapped in three coastal townships without electricity or drinking water.
The newspaper Apple Daily said one man in a flooded Pingtung town had single-handedly rescued about 100 people with a bamboo raft over the past two days.
In eastern China, a massive landslide triggered by torrential rain from Typhoon Morakot toppled seven older houses in one town, killing two people and injuring four, firefighters and residents said.
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