VANCOUVER (CBC) - At least seven people were killed when tropical storm Kalmaegi struck southern Taiwan with torrential rains and flash floods Thursday night.

The storm was headed toward southern China early Friday, packing winds of 83 km/h, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.

Television reports showed water pouring down mountain roads and drivers stuck on highways as their cars were engulfed in flash floods.

Meteorologists said some areas got more than 110 centimetres of rain in 24 hours.

Taiwan's Disaster Relief Centre said a woman was rescued from a house buried in a landslide, but her one-year-old daughter and brother died.

2 missing after rescue

A soldier fell into a drainage ditch and died in the central Taiwanese city Taichung, the centre said.

Four people drowned and four others were washed away by flood waters in Kaohsiung and Tainan in southern Taiwan, said the centre.

Two others, a man and a woman, were missing after the police motorboat that rescued them from their home overturned in the flood waters of Tainan county. The three rescuers were pulled from the water unharmed, the centre said.

Kalmaegi, the Korean word for seagull, moved through the northern corner of the Philippines earlier this week with rain and strong winds. The government's disaster agency reported two deaths from the storm.

With files from the Associated Press

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