14 killed, 124 missing in Taiwan after barrier lake burst | International

TAIPEI, Sept 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - At least 14 people were killed when a decades-old lake barrier burst in Taiwan, a government official said Wednesday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rain. The barrier lake in eastern Hualien county burst 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. The National Fire Agency said 124 people were missing. "It was a...