Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, is now known to have killed at least 13 people in Taiwan as it churned towards southeastern China.

Emergency workers dug up nine bodies buried under the debris of a temple swamped by mudslides, while two more were found in houses and one in a port in northeastern Ilan county, the National Fire Agency said.

On Sunday, rescuers discovered the body of a woman at the site of a landslide along the highway, also in Ilan county, a rescue official told reporters.

Relatives later identified the victim as a teacher from a school for handicapped children.

Rescuers and soldiers used sniffer dogs as they combed a coastal ravine where officials believe a bus carrying 21 people -- including 19 Chinese tourists -- might have been buried.

Relatives of the missing from China's Guangdong Province arrived on the island on Sunday.

A Taiwanese bus driver, a Chinese tour guide and two locals also remain unaccounted for.

A weakening Megi made landfall on the Chinese mainland on Saturday afternoon, where meteorologists Sunday downgraded it to a tropical depression as it dumped torrential rain in coastal provinces.

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