China typhoon death toll rises

BEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll from the strongest
typhoon to hit China in half a century has reached 319 and
could rise further, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

Much of southern China has been battered by a series of
typhoons and tropical storms this year that have now killed
about 1,300 people.

Saomai, graded a “super typhoon” with winds exceeding 216
km (134 miles) per hour, barrelled into Cangnan county in the
eastern province of Zhejiang on Thursday, flattening tens of
thousands of houses, capsizing ships and damaging roads,
bridges and buildings.

A total of 202 people were confirmed dead in Fuding city in
the southeastern province of Fujian alone, Xinhua said.

Most of them were sailors and fishermen who had tried to
ride out the storm on their boats moored off the coastal town
of Shacheng, bordering Cangnan to the north, Xinhua said. The
news service added that 175 bodies had been recovered from the
sea by Tuesday.

“The figure is still likely to mount, as another 94 people
remain missing in the city,” the report said.

The overall death toll for Fujian stood at 230, it said.

In Zhejiang, 87 people were killed, most of them crushed by
houses that had collapsed, and 52 were missing, Xinhua said.

Further inland, Saomai also killed two people and left one
missing in Jiangxi province.

Saomai was stronger than a typhoon that killed about 5,000
people in Zhejiang in August 1956, according to Chinese media.