TAIPEI: An eight-year-old girl and her mother died after being swept out to sea off Taiwan as Typhoon Soudelor bore down on the island, forcing thousands to flee, officials said on Friday.

Troops evacuated villagers from remote mountain regions in the east of the island and helped secure their homes as rains and surging waves battered the coast.

More than 2,000 people, many of them tourists, had already been evacuated from Taiwan’s outlying islands.

The typhoon is set to make a direct hit on the east coast in early hours of Saturday before moving across central Taiwan.

Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year earlier in the week, Soudelor has since weakened but authorities warned it may strengthen again before making landfall.

The young girl and her mother became the first casualties of the impending storm after they were swept out to sea in Taiwan’s eastern Yilan county on Thursday.

The dead girl’s twin was also missing in the same incident, while another nine-year-old girl was injured but survived.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2015

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