Families of missing mainlanders see hopes dim
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Relatives of missing mainland tourists on Tuesday were gradually resigning themselves to the fact that their loved ones were almost certainly killed in landslides triggered by Typhoon Megi on Taiwan.
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Families of missing mainland tourists arrived in Taiwan on Monday. |
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Special report: |
A Taiwan driver, Tsai Chih-ming, missing since Oct 21 after a landslide on the island's eastern coastal Suao-Hualien Highway, was confirmed dead Tuesday, according to the local prosecutors office.
The rescue team found his remains at a section of the highway Monday, and fingerprint identification confirmed the identity, the office said.
Despite a search lasting more than five days, tour group leader Tian Yuan, from Beijing, who was on the same bus as Tsai, remains missing.
Twenty-one members of a tour group -- 19 mainland tourists from South China's Guangdong province, a local guide and a local driver -- are still missing after their bus was hit by a landslide on the highway on Oct 21.
Near Tsai's remains, rescuers recovered some suspected female remains Monday. The local authority collected DNA samples from Tian's mother Monday noon to help in the identification. Tian's mother and husband, who arrived in Taiwan Saturday, are still awaiting the results.
Thirty-six relatives of the missing Guangdong tourists arrived in Taiwan Monday. Seven of them braved rain and rushed to the site of the landslide in Ilan county Tuesday. They stopped at sections 112.8 km and 114.5 km of the Suao-Hualien Highway to examine the rescue process.
