Heavy rain washed large volumes of silt into the Donggang navigation channel in Pingtung, Taiwan, leaving a passenger ferry carrying 146 people aground at low tide. Everyone was rescued safely, but the incident points to rising safety risks in the channel.

• Days of extremely heavy rain in Pingtung swelled the Donggang River and other waterways, washing large amounts of silt down to the river mouth, where it accumulated.
• The Donggang–Liuqiu route had resumed service for the first day after the heavy rain when the passenger ferry "Lan Bai No. 1" touched the silt bottom and ran aground at midday low tide.
• All 141 passengers and five crew members were unharmed, and after being transferred to another vessel the incident amounted to nothing more than a scare.
• The county government set up an emergency response centre, coast guard vessels were dispatched to stand by, and the operator brought in a tugboat to help free the ferry.
• The incident has been reported to the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board, and the operator must submit a marine incident report to determine the cause.

Outlook: Conditions in the Donggang channel remain unstable under the combined effects of silt accumulation and tides, so vessels will have to slow down in the near term, while other routes are operating normally for now.