Searchers in Taiwan found mangled vehicle parts thought to be a bus carrying 19 Chinese tourists that disappeared when typhoon rains triggered massive mudslides on a mountainside highway, the transport minister said Saturday.

Landslides caused by Typhoon Megi killed nine people and buried a Buddhist temple in hardest-hit Ilan county in the northeast, where a record 45 inches (114 centimeters) of rain fell over 48 hours. Three other people drowned in their flooded homes, the Central Emergency Operations Center said.

The bus passengers were among 23 people still missing on the island after Megi, which killed 28 people in the Philippines earlier in the week.

Megi pounded southern China's Fujian province with heavy rain Saturday but was downgraded to a strong tropical storm with winds of up to 67 mph (108 kph). TV news showed flooded streets, uprooted trees and swollen waterways, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.