A hiker was swept away by a swollen stream while descending the Mabolasi Traverse in southern Hualien, Taiwan, after torrential rain hit the area — bad news for the search team facing dangerous, storm-hit terrain.

• A four-person hiking group that started the route on the 18th was coming down toward Yuli when floodwater swept away a 30-year-old woman.
• Southern Hualien townships have taken more than 300mm of rain as tropical depression TD24 crawls northwest, with a warning still in force.
• Rescuers from the fire department and the forestry agency are climbing in, but it will take them about six hours to reach the spot.
• The accident site sits near a collapsed section of the Zhongping forest road, where the old trail is broken and hikers must drop into the river valley and climb back out.
• The Mabolasi Traverse is one of Taiwan's hardest routes, stretching some 96 km from Nantou to Hualien and known for unstable cliffs.

Outlook: Search progress depends on the rain easing, and with poor communications in the mountains, details are likely to stay thin for at least the next day.