Hundreds of people are feared dead in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot triggered a mudslide that buried an entire village on the south-west coast.

台风莫拉克过后，台湾西南海岸发生泥石流，整个村庄被淹没，数百人生活在恐惧之中。

Officials said about 600-800 people are missing in Shiao Lin village after part of the mountain collapsed¹ on sleeping villagers' homes on Monday morning.

Most of the dead are thought to be the elderly and children.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, the number of confirmed deaths is 37, with 35 injured and 52 missing, officials said.

Typhoon Morakot dropped some 2m (80in) of rain on Taiwan this weekend, causing the worst flooding in decades.

Morakot weakened to a tropical storm early Monday and is now lashing² south-eastern China.

A million people have been evacuated³ from their homes in China and six deaths have been reported - including four in Zhejiang province, and two others in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.

State news agency Xinhua said hundreds of villages and towns had been flooded and more than 2,000 houses and buildings had collapsed.

In Japan, Typhoon Etau - packing winds of up to 108km (67 miles) an hour - has set off flash floods and landslides⁴ that have killed at least 12 people.

It is forecast to hit the Tokyo area on Tuesday, amid nationwide warnings of heavy rain and landslides.

Buried village

Taiwanese television earlier reported that about 200 homes in Shiao Lin village were buried by mud.

Rescue efforts have been complicated as many of the roads leading to Shiao Lin have been washed away and the unstable⁵ ground makes it difficult for rescue helicopters to reach the area.

"I could hardly believe my eyes," rescuer Su Shen-tsun told AFP news agency.

"The whole village disappeared and even roofs of the houses could not be seen."

The typhoon also cut power and water supplies, brought down bridges and railway lines, and cut telephone communications.

Shiao Lin is home to 1,300 residents, but most working-age people were thought to be away in the nearby cities.

The BBC's Cindy Sui, in Cishan village, some 40km (25 miles) away, says about 50 people had been rescued and another 150 found alive in another part of the village.

Our correspondent says many of those rescued said their family members were still trapped inside.

Under grey skies, military helicopters were dropping food to those below and looking for survivors⁶.

In another incident in south-eastern Taiwan, an entire six-storey hotel - empty at the time - collapsed into the raging（狂暴的） waters.

Before ploughing into Taiwan, Morakot dumped heavy rains in the north of the Philippines, killing⁷ at least 22 people last week.

Typhoons and tropical storms are frequent in the region between July and September.