Four days after Taiwan’s worst floods in half a century — just as the residents of Taoyuan believed Typhoon Morakot’s violence was finally over — a terrifying order came through from the military: run — you’ve got minutes to live.

Grabbing whatever food and possessions they could, the 500 villagers began a panicked scramble to the higher ground, heaving themselves over jagged rocks and clambering over walls of mud.

Within moments of the last stragglers reaching safety, a giant flood lake formed by Sunday’s mudslides broke its banks, unleashing what eye-witnesses called “a mountain tsunami”.

The incident in Taoyuan was just one of many chaotic scenes played out across southern Taiwan today amid more torrential rain and fears of a dramatic rise in the death toll.

Many villages and small mountain communities remain inaccessible — a series of medicine and food airdrops today suggested that it may be days before many of those left homeless by Morakot are reconnected with the outside world. Some had scrawled giant SOS messages on bits of broken timber — one or two with estimates of the number of dead beneath the mudslides.

Added to the misery has been mounting condemnation of the handling of the disaster by the authorities. Newspaper editorials accused Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou of being incompetent, and carried reports of survivors digging, unaided, in search of loved ones. One survivor said: “We are forgotten.”

Much of the anger is directed at the Government’s failure to seek foreign assistance from countries such as Japan or the United States, a reluctance thought to be born of stubborn pride.

Mr Ma's inspection of the relief efforts was interrupted when he was surrounded by a group of enraged survivors. “What is your Government doing?” one man shouted at the President. “It’s too late, they cannot be saved.”

Thousands have been found alive in remote mountain villages — including another group of 300 discovered stranded this morning — but reaching them is difficult. Even helicopter airlifts have been hampered by the bad weather, with the number of evacuations lower than expected.

Estimates vary wildly over how many people might still be alive, and, more grimly, how many may lie crushed under thousands of tonnes of collapsed mountainside. The official toll stands at 108, though there is a strong suspicion among rescue workers that the figure could triple as the search goes on.

The Government sent another 4,000 troops to join the 16,000 already deployed throughout the flood-stricken disaster zone. Liao Liao-yi, the Interior Minister, spent the day denying suggestions that the relief effort had been lacklustre, assuring reporters that the pace had picked up from yesterday.

To those waiting at the heliports on the edge of the disaster zone, however, progress again felt painfully slow. Bridges have been obliterated and many roads have either been buried under landslides or smashed off the mountains. In the area around Taoyuan, the authorities warned that other flood-lakes could burst at any moment.

None of this has calmed the anger of the villagers waiting impatiently for news of their families. Many in the worst-hit area of Kaohsiung county believe that the south, which is the main stronghold of the opposition party, is being deliberately starved of assistance.

“It’s too slow. They don’t care about the south. They just care about the north,” Chen Fu-rong, a funeral director, told reporters.

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