No fewer than 14 people have been confirmed dead after a decades-old lake barrier burst in Taiwan.
A government official confirmed the incident on Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
The lake in eastern Hualien county – formed by series of landslides that created a natural dam wall – burst on Tuesday, washing away a bridge and sweeping into a town with a trail of thick sludge and mud.
“It was like a volcano erupting. The muddy floodwaters came roaring straight into the first floor of my house,” Hsu Cheng-hsiung, 55, a neighbourhood leader of Kuang Fu township, told AFP.
Lee Kuan-ting, a Hualien County Government press official, said 14 people were killed and 18 injured.
Premier Cho Jung-tai visited the area on Wednesday, pledging to provide assistance to those affected.
He said: “As for the 14 people who lost their lives, we must find out why evacuation orders were not carried out in the affected area, leading to such a tragedy.
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“We still have more than a hundred people missing and this is our greatest concern right now.”
According to the National Fire Agency, at least 152 people are missing in Hualien and elsewhere in Taiwan.
“It was a disaster movie,” a resident, Yen Shau, said.
He said an hour before the lake burst, many people were still at the local supermarket and grocery store.
“Within minutes, the water had risen to halfway up the first floor,” the resident added.
Footage released by the fire agency showed flooded streets, half-submerged cars and uprooted trees.
Across Taiwan, more than 7,600 people were evacuated due to Typhoon Ragasa.
Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from July to October.
Typhoon Danas, which hit the island in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 50 centimetres of rain across the south over a weekend.
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