300 Typhoon Victims Rescued in Taiwan

About 300 were rescued by Taiwan's military Tuesday after a mudslide touched off by Typhoon Morakot consumed a village, but scores remained missing.

Photo: 300 Typhoon Victims Rescued in Taiwan

300 Typhoon Victims Rescued in Taiwan

In Taiwan, rescue operations were being carried out by helicopters, which hovered over the village looking for survivors.

Officials said more than 300 people were brought out Tuesday on up to 120 flights from a large mountainous area in Kaohsiung to an improvised landing zone at Cishan Junior High School. The people saved came from Shiao Lin and surrounding villages, officials said, The Assiciated Press reports.

Those rescued had escaped the mudslide by running to higher ground, where they were plucked by the helicopters, the AP says.

Scores from the village of Shiano Lin are still missing, The USA Today Reports.

Also Tuesday, a helicopter carrying three people crashed into a mountain in Taiwan while trying to rescue villagers.

Wreckage of the helicopter has been spotted near Wutai, a mountainous region in southern Pingtung county, said disaster official Chen Chung-hsien, CBC.ca reports.