Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) A falling rock on a section of the Suhua Highway in Yilan County on Saturday left two adults injured and caused damage to their vehicle, according to the Yilan County Fire Bureau.

The bureau said it received reports at 3 p.m. that a car was struck by a falling rock at the 117-kilometer mark of the highway, also known as Provincial Highway No. 9, just north of the Xin'ao Tunnel located between Dong'ao and Nan'ao.

The falling rock was large enough to bust a hole in the windshield of the car upon impact, injuring a man who was driving and a woman in the passenger seat, the bureau said.

The driver sustained injuries to his arms, while the woman suffered lacerations to her head, but both of them were fully conscious when rescuers reached the scene of the incident, the bureau said.

The two children in the car's back seat were uninjured, but rode in the ambulance that took the adults to Saint Mary's Hospital in Luodong.

Yilan has been experiencing heavy rain in recent days, with the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) on Saturday issuing extreme torrential rain advisories for the county and warning residents of potential flooding, landslides and rockfalls.

The coastal Suhua Highway has long been vulnerable to landslides and falling rocks, but a 10-year project completed in 2020 drilled tunnels through the mountains in eastern Taiwan to bypass some of the more vulnerable sections of the roadway.

The section where the incident occurred is one of the few for which no alternative section was created.

(By Worthy Shen and James Lo)