Hopes are fading that rescuers will be able to save hundreds of people trapped by mudslides and floods in Taiwan, six days after Typhoon Morakot struck.

台风莫拉克横扫台湾六天之后，被泥石流和洪水困住的数百人成功获救的希望非常渺茫。

The south-western village of Hsiaolin was buried by a mudslide

Thousands of troops are struggling across shattered roads and collapsed¹ bridges to reach stranded²（搁浅的） communities.

The official death toll³ has risen to 120, but President Ma Ying-jeou earlier said the final figure could exceed 500.

Mr Ma's government has been criticised by some for its allegedly slow and inadequate⁴ response to the disaster.

Critics say the authorities were too slow to realise the magnitude（重要，级数） of the emergency, while some of those stranded say they have received no help for days and are short of food and water.

Many have been waiting for days at the rescue operation centre in Qishan for news of relatives missing since the typhoon struck.

"There are younger people who are arranging rescue missions of their own, because people have received cell-phone text messages from their family members in Taiwan saying they are short of supplies, they are stranded, they don't have anything to eat," one rescue worker in Kaohsiung, Benson, told the BBC.

Officials says rescue teams have been hampered⁵（阻碍） by sustained（持久的） rains in the centre and south of the island, and a badly damaged road network which means many villages can only be accessed by air.

"The government will overcome all obstacles to accomplish the mission," President Ma said.

Memorial park

After days of sending helicopters to evacuate⁶ survivors⁷ and distribute aid in the south-western village of Hsiaolin, which was buried by a mudslide, rescuers managed to reach it by road on Thursday.

However, they had given up hope of finding the 380 people missing under the tons of earth covering the area, Kaohsiung county chief Yang Chiu-hsing said.

Instead of trying to excavate⁸ the approximately 170 homes in an effort to find the bodies of their occupants, a memorial park would be built on the site, he added.

Thirty-two people are also missing in the nearby village of Liukuei, which was also hit by a mudslide. Six others were killed in the village of Sinfa when a torrent⁹（激流，山洪） of water cascaded¹⁰（级联的） down a mountainside and destroyed their houses.

Over the past few days, 15,400 people have been ferried to safety from the area, including some 2,000 on Thursday alone.

The BBC's Cindy Sui, in Kaohsiung county, says the authorities are confident they can bring out the remaining 1,900 people thought to be stranded there on Friday.

The military has enough helicopters now, our correspondent says, and the weather has improved. Troops are being sent on foot into some steep valleys that are hard to search from the air, she adds.

Many of the worst-affected villages are inhabited by aborigines（土著居民）, who farm the mountainous terrain（地带，地域）.

Thousands more people are believed to be stranded in remote settlements elsewhere in southern and central Taiwan.

Officials in the island's south-eastern Taitung county estimated that nearly 3,700 people remained cut off as of Friday morning, the AFP news agency reported, while in central Chiayi county some 9,000 were thought to be stranded.