Taipei - Typhoon Bilis stormed past Taiwan early this morning, leaving three people dead and nine others buried alive after ferocious winds and torrential rain left a trail of destruction across the island.
"The typhoon has been reduced from a super typhoon as its structure was damaged by the island's central mountain range," said a spokesman for the Central Weather Bureau, after the typhoon ravaged the island for five hours.
After hitting the island at Taitung at around 10:30 p.m. (2.30 p.m. Irish time) yesterday, the typhoon uprooted trees, triggered landslides, disrupted electricity supplies to 450,000 households and left casualties in its wake.