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

Most of the dead are thought to be 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 lashing south-eastern China.

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

The State news agency Xinhua, said that 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 – have released flash floods and landslides that killed at least 12 people.