Three people have died and four are missing, while 50 injuries have been noted, as torrential downpours have been pummeling Taiwan for the past week, the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) said Sunday, Report informs via Focus Taiwan.
The three deaths occurred on July 30 and 31 as a result of vehicle accidents during bad weather -- two in Kaohsiung and one in Nantou County -- according to CEOC data valid as of 6:30 p.m. (GMT+8) Sunday.
One of the fatalities was a 57-year-old man who drowned on July 31 when he rode into a heavily flooded street in Nantou that had been closed off by police, the county's police department said. Twenty minutes later, his body was found submerged in two meters of floodwater on the road, the police said.
The other two deaths occurred on July 30 when a vehicle carrying a family of five plunged into a ravine along Provincial Highway No. 20 in Kaohsiung during bad weather, the CEOC said.
Two bodies were recovered, while three of the passengers remained missing as of Sunday, according to the CEOC.
The fourth missing person is the rider of a scooter that was found along Provincial Highway No. 29 in Kaohsiung's Qishan District on Saturday, the CEOC said without elaborating.
The two highway sections in Kaohsiung have been closed pending repairs, and only emergency disaster relief vehicles are allowed to drive through there, the CEOC said in a statement issued after a meeting at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Meanwhile, 50 people across Taiwan have been injured in incidents related to the torrential downpours, including more than 20 in Kaohsiung and about 12 in Changhua County, according to the CEOC.