A man and a woman were yesterday found dead inside a van after heavy downpours in Chiayi County on Sunday.
Rescuers found the bodies after responding to a call reporting that two people were believed to be inside a vehicle near a bridge close to Provincial Highway No. 82’s Jhonghe Interchange in Chiayi, the county’s fire bureau said, adding that the flooding had mainly subsided at that point.
The two might have become trapped when their van was submerged following heavy rain in the area, which began on Sunday afternoon and continued until late on Sunday night, police said.
Photo: Wang Shan-yan, Taipei Times
The case has been turned over to prosecutors and drowning was determined to be the cause of death, they said.
As of 10pm on Sunday, 32 people had been rescued from flooded vehicles near the bridge, police added.
Yesterday morning, the Chiayi City Government announced the closure of state-run high schools in the city, and National Chiayi University said its campuses in the city and county would be closed.
On Sunday night, the county government had announced that schools and offices would be closed yesterday, but the Chiayi City Government had said that schools and offices were expected to be open.
Meanwhile, the Alishan Forest Railway service has been suspended until further notice.
As of Sunday night, Chiayi city and county had recorded more than 280mm of rain, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The heavy downpours in the area, which started at 2pm on Sunday, resulted in flooding and mudslides that disrupted traffic, and damaged and buried homes.
Jhuci Township (竹崎) Mayor Tseng Liang-tseh (曾亮哲) on Sunday night said that a mudslide had buried or destroyed more than 10 houses, including a household that was set to hold a funeral for a family member yesterday.
The body of the deceased, which was swept away by a one-story-high mudslide along with the freezer it was being preserved in the living room, was found at about noon yesterday, the Jhuci police precinct said in a statement.
The rest of the family were in a different part of the house, and were all safe, the precinct said.
Police had been helping the family search for the body since Sunday night after receiving a call at about 9pm, it said, adding that the military and township office had also sent excavators and equipment to the site yesterday morning to help the family find the body as soon as possible.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation