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Hundreds to remain entombed in Taiwan village
1 of 8. Medical workers disinfect a street flooded with mud in Linbian, Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, August 24, 2009, following Typhoon Morakot. More than 600 people were listed dead or missing in Taiwan last Friday after one of the island's worst typhoons as the military began digging up bodies buried deep under rocks and mud.
Credit: Reuters/Nicky Loh
TAIPEI |
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan authorities will not attempt to recover the bodies of hundreds feared killed in a village by a mudslide this month, and will instead turn the site into a memorial park, a local leader said Monday.
The T$100 million ($3.04 million) park, slated to open in a year, would sit above the landslide, which has been compared to a fallen mountainside, as a place to remember the aboriginal village, township chief Liu Chien-fang said.
"The village had a special character as a Pingpu district," Liu told Reuters, describing the local Austonesian ethnic group in the Kaohsiung county village of Hsiao Lin.
"The homes were special, likewise the local customs and habits. It's a shame nothing was left behind."
The official toll from typhoon Morakot stands at 291 dead and 387 missing, and the damage to agricultural production has been put at T$14.4 billion. It also plunged Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou into his worst crisis since being elected president in May 2008.
(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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