TAIPEI -- Typhoon Soulik has left two dead, one missing and 104 others injured since it hit the northern part of Taiwan early Saturday morning, local authorities said.
The island's disaster emergency center said one victim was a police officer who was hit on the head by a falling brick and died after hospital treatment failed. The other was a 54-year-old woman who fell from the top floor of a building and died in hospital.
Soulik hit the region between Yilan county and Xinbei city at around 3 a.m. Saturday, bringing strong wind and rainstorms.
As of 9 p.m., the center of Soulik was northwest of the Matsu Islands, an island group nearer to the mainland, and continued moving northwestward, at a speed of 26 km per hour, away from the Taiwan Island, Taiwan meteorological authority said.
The typhoon has seriously affected the transport service in Taiwan. About 200 flights were delayed and 154 were canceled in Taoyuan Airport near Taipei while several sections of highways were blocked because of toppled trees and landslides.
Bad weather had also cut off power supply of about 1 million households and as of 5:30 p.m. electricity to about 85,000 households have not been restored.
All counties and cities in Taiwan announced suspension of school classes and work on Saturday.
The meteorological authority also issued a warning of heavy rainstorms in its mountainous regions on Sunday.
