At least 14 people were killed when a decades-old lake barrier burst in Taiwan, a government official said Wednesday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded the island with torrential rain.

The lake in eastern Hualien county -- formed by series of landslides that created a natural dam wall -- burst Tuesday, washing away a bridge and sweeping into a town with a trail of thick sludge and mud.

"It was like a volcano erupting.... the muddy floodwaters came roaring straight into the first floor of my house," Hsu Cheng-hsiung, 55, a neighbourhood leader of Kuang Fu township, told AFP.

Lee Kuan-ting, a Hualien County Government press official, said 14 people were killed and 18 injured.

Premier Cho Jung-tai visited the area Wednesday, pledging to provide assistance to those affected.

"As for the

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