Taiwan confirms typhoon death toll of 292

TAIWAN’S government yesterday confirmed 292 people were killed and 385 missing after Typhoon Morakot struck the island and caused its worst flooding in half a century earlier this month.

Those still unaccounted for include 311 from the southern village of Hsiaolin, the National Fire Agency said.With the hope of finding bodies fading, an increasing number of people still hunting for loved ones decided to list them as dead rather than missing.

Relatives in Hsiaolin yesterday decided to halt their search for the corpses of those buried by mud that is three to four stories deep, television stations reported.