Four Dead in Taiwan Typhoon

The storm has caused hundreds of mudslides, widespread flooding, traffic accidents, 252,000 power outages, and 1,594 evacuations.

Four people were killed and seven reported missing on Monday after Typhoon Sinlaku brought winds of up to 160 kph (100 mph) to Taiwan, causing a section of bridge to collapse and a fatal mudslide.

Seventeen people were injured around the island as the typhoon dumped as much as 1,400 mm of rain in some mountainous areas of the north. Winds and rain tapered off by early Monday.

Part of a bridge in Taichung county of central Taiwan collapsed, killing at least one person in a vehicle that plunged from the span into fast-moving waters below.

Two others died in a mudslide in northern Taiwan. The fourth fatality occurred when a motor scooter slid into the ocean.

The centre of the storm was 410 km (250 miles) northeast of Taiwan at 0630 GMT on Monday. Meteorological service tropicalstormrisk.com said Sinlaku would weaken to a tropical storm as it headed for Japan.

Sinlaku is the fourth storm of the season to hit Taiwan. On July 18, typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 20 people.