BEIJING - The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit China in half a century has risen to 255, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. About 140 people are still missing.
The death toll jumped as the southeastern province of Fujian on Monday raised the number of people killed there to 166 from about 40, Xinhua said, adding that most were fishermen from a single town.
Saomai, graded a "super typhoon" with winds exceeding 216 km (134 miles) per hour, barrelled into Cangnan county in Zhejiang province last Thursday, flattening tens of thousands of houses, knocking out power and communications and ruining crops.
The deaths in Fujian were mostly reported in the coastal town of Shacheng, bordering Cangnan to the north, where more than 10,000 ships returned to harbour before Saomai's arrival.
"A lot of fishermen stayed on their boats, worrying that they might be damaged in collisions with other ships," Xinhua said. "The wind was so strong that it overturned many ships and a large number of people were killed or went missing."
A total of 138 people were killed and 1,350 injured in Fuding city, which covers Shacheng, Xinhua said. Bodies of 97 fishermen had been found in Shacheng by Sunday night.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said locals feared as many as 1,000 people from the area could have died, but Xinhua said only 86 were still missing in all of Fuding and distraught relatives were still searching the waters by boat.
In neighbouring Zhejiang, most of the casualties were caused by houses collapsing, Xinhua said, adding that 87 died and 52 were missing.
Further inland, Saomai also killed two and left one missing in Jiangxi province.
Saomai was stronger than a typhoon that killed about 5,000 in Zhejiang in August 1956, according to Chinese media.
Much of south China has been repeatedly battered by typhoons and tropical storms this year, with nearly 1,000 killed by rainstorms, landslides and other disasters they brought even before Saomai hit.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
