Typhoon Kong-rey was packing wind speeds of 184 kilometers an hour (114 miles per hour) when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, toppling trees, causing flooding and triggering landslides as it swept over the island.

A 48-year-old motorcyclist was killed by a falling power pole in the capital Taipei on Thursday, taking the storm's death toll to two, with more than 500 injured, the National Fire Agency said.

A search was also under way for four people who went hunting in the mountains of central Taiwan on Wednesday and have not been heard from since that evening.

Kong-rey weakened to a severe tropical storm as it moved across the Taiwan Strait towards China on Friday, the Central Weather Administration said.

In Taiwan, life was returning to normal, with offices, restaurants and schools reopening.

"The typhoon was so strong yesterday," Pan Li-chu told AFP at her restaurant in Taipei, where the awning had been bent by the force of the wind.

"The trees over there at the elementary school were uprooted. The big banyan tree was uprooted," she said.

Kong-rey dumped more than a meter of water in some of the hardest-hit areas along the east coast, the Central Weather Administration said.