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TAIPEI : About 700 aborigines were trapped in a remote Taiwan village after heavy rains brought by tropical storm Meranti triggered landslides, as weathermen issued a warning against the storm.
Meranti dumped over 350 millimetres (14 inches) of rain over the past 24 hours in Chinfeng, Taima and Tajen township in southeast Taiwan's Taitung county, an area still reeling from last year's devastating Typhoon Morakot.
"Since Wednesday, rain has kept falling in the area," Hsu Yu-chang, an official at the Taitung county government, told AFP.
The downpour caused landslides, cutting off a key road and isolating 700 villagers mostly belonging to an aboriginal tribe, Hsu said, adding they did not face any immediate risks.
The county government has evacuated more than 500 villagers from the area and ordered some schools and offices in the county to be closed, rescuers said.
The moves came after the Central Weather Bureau issued a warning against the storm, urging residents to take precautions as the weather system could bring severe downpours as well as flooding and landslides.
The warning was especially directed at residents of Penghu, an island group in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen, another archipelago near southeast China's Fujian province.
The two island groups sit on the storm's forecast route, the bureau said.
At 08:00 GMT, Meranti was about 130 kilometres (85.8 miles) south-southwest of Penghu, it said.
It was moving north-northwest at speed of 17 kilometres an hour and may make landfall in Fujian Friday, according to the bureau.
"Although the storm is not expected to move straight towards Taiwan, it may bring strong winds and heavy rains, and residents must not let down their guard," an official at the bureau said. "Heavy rains could spark flash floods and landslides."
Typhoon Morakot dumped a record 3,000 millimetres (120 inches) of rain on Taiwan last year, causing huge mudslides and killing more than 700 people.
- AFP /ls
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