Alarmed by the sustained downpours, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau placed 46 towns on full alert asking residents there to heighten their vigilance against possible mudslides.

The Central Weather Bureau issued the warning at midnight as the heavy rains compounded flooding that had already struck much of the northern part of the island.

Hardest hit was Taipei's Nankang district, where 800 millimetersinches) of rain fell in the past two days.

A 65-year-old man drowned in the basement of his residence in the capital, and a 62-year-old man was found dead in an underground passage in northern Taoyuan city, according to the National Fire Agency, which coordinates rescue efforts.

Rescuers found the body of a junior high school boy, who was washed away by flash floods in southern Tainan county on Saturday.

In northern Hsinchu county, rescuers pulled out three bodies from a house submerged by tonnes of mudslides in the mountainous Chienshih township.

"The rescue work has to be stopped as the night falls," an official from the county government told AFP, adding he feared a fourth person remained buried under the massive amount of mudslides washed down from a nearby mountain.

About 30 people armed with bulldozers helped with the rescue work.

The storm was 110 kilometers (66 miles) northeast of Taipei at 4:00 pm (0800 GMT), and packing gusts of 65 kilometers per hour. It was moving north-northwest at 12 kilometers per hour.

The Central Weather Bureau is expected to lift its severe warning later Sunday.

Cheng said he had ordered hundreds of residents to be evacuated from remote villages.

In the low-lying town of Shichih, north of Taipei, water reached the first floor of many homes and forced residents to retreat to higher ground earlier in the weekend.

Rescue workers braved downpours to evacuate people in inflatable boats to safety, but police said about 1,000 people were feared trapped in Shichih.

Authorities said heavy rain could cause further flooding from the swollen Keelung River north of Taipei.

In the capital, people rushed to pile up sandbags around the entrances of underground rail stations and pedestrian passages.

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