TAIPEI: A cargo ship sank off Taiwan's southern coast, with its nine Myanmar sailors missing after abandoning ship in life jackets, authorities said Thursday.
Stormy weather in the wake of Typhoon Gaemi has prevented rescuers from reaching the sailors, Hsiao Huan-chang, head of Taiwan's National Fire Agency, told a briefing.
"They fell into the sea and were floating there," Hsiao said, adding that rescuers contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship to assist them.
Hsiao did not specify when the Tanzania-flagged ship sank, but said the rescue vessel arrived in the area at 8:35 am (0035 GMT).
"(When the Taiwanese ship arrived) the visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong. When the weather permits, we will immediately dispatch ships or helicopters to rescue but at the moment it is not possible," he said.
Another official at the agency told AFP after the briefing that the sailors were missing.
News of the ship's sinking came after Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday night with sustained wind speeds of 190 kilometres (118 miles) per hour at its peak.
Authorities said it was the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years. At least two people in Taiwan were killed due to Gaemi's impacts, including a woman who was crushed after a part of a building fell on her.
Several cities, including Taipei, announced a second day off, with schools, government offices and the stock market closed, while hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled.
Kaohsiung residents saw their streets transformed into rivers, with some households flooded with rainwater.
Flood warnings
The storm is now tracking towards China's Fujian province, which suspended all train services and put in place the second-highest flood warning alert level.
The national water resources ministry warned on Wednesday that extremely heavy rains were expected to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.
In the Philippines, clean-up efforts were under way Thursday in the capital Manila as residents and business owners dumped soaked mattresses, bags of rubbish and other debris on muddy streets.
Relentless rain fuelled by Gaemi, which did not pass through the Philippines, killed at least 20 people over the past two weeks in Manila and its surrounding provinces, authorities said Thursday.
The region experiences frequent tropical storms from July to October but experts say climate change has increased their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.