Pan Hui-chen thought it was the end of the world when a series of massive explosions devastated her neighborhood of Kaohsiung city overnight Friday.

"The scene was really, really terrifying," the 55-year-old told Agence France-Presse from a high school campus where hundreds of people sought shelter after their homes were affected by the blasts which killed at least 25 people and injured 267 others.

A series of powerful gas blasts killed at least 25 people and injured up to 267 Friday in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, overturning cars and ripping up roads as terrified residents fled an inferno.

The explosions sparked massive fires which tore through the city's Cianjhen district, leaving a yawning trench running for hundreds of meters down the middle of a major thoroughfare and littering the streets with dead bodies.

Taiwan's first lady will resume a rare visit to Japan which was postponed after a diplomatic row over posters for an exhibition of loaned treasured artifacts, officials said Monday.

Chow Mei-ching, wife of President Ma Ying-jeou, was set to attend the opening of an exhibition last month of hundreds of artifacts and artworks the Taipei National Palace Museum on display in Japan for the first time.

Taiwan's TransAsia Airways ran an apology on the front pages of five major newspapers Friday, pledging to shoulder the "utmost responsibility" after 48 people died when one of its planes crashed in stormy weather.

It came after grieving relatives confronted airline chairman Vincent Lin as he was paying respects to the dead at a funeral home, and as it emerged that 10-year-old survivor battling burn injuries had been rescued at great risk by two fellow passengers.

Rescuers said Thursday they had recovered black boxes from the Taiwanese aircraft which crashed in torrential rain killing 48 people, as angry relatives blamed authorities for the worst air disaster in a decade.

Taiwanese officials on Thursday defended flight clearance given to a plane which crashed in torrential rain, killing 48 people, as angry relatives blamed authorities for the worst air disaster in a decade.

The domestic TransAsia Airways flight was carrying 54 passengers and four crew members when it crashed in Magong in the Penghu island chain, with 10 survivors.

At least 42 people were killed in a plane crash in Taiwan on Wednesday, officials said, with witnesses and local media reporting the flight came down in a storm after an aborted landing.

TransAsia Airways flight GE222 was carrying 58 people on a domestic flight when it crashed into houses near Magong airport on the Penghu island chain after requesting a second attempt to land there, local media reported.

Typhoon Matmo pounded Taiwan with fierce winds and downpours Wednesday, leaving nine people injured, shuttering financial markets, and interrupting rail and air transportation.

Typhoon Matmo churned towards Taiwan Tuesday, picking up strength with thousands of tourists evacuated from outlying islands as weather forecasters warned of possible flash floods and landslides. 

Taiwanese prosecutors on Monday said they were seeking the death penalty for a man accused of killing four people and wounding nearly two dozen others in a stabbing spree on the Taipei subway that shocked the island.

Cheng Chieh, a 21-year-old college student, was charged with four accounts of murder and 22 accounts of attempted murder for the fatal attack on May 21, the first of its kind on the city's subway system since it began operating in 1996.