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Typhoon Soudelor toll rises to 17 in China: state media

Residents watched huge waves stirred up by strong wind as Typhoon Soudelor approached China's mainland in Wenling, eastern Zhejiang province on August 8, 2015/AFP

Residents watched huge waves stirred up by strong wind as Typhoon Soudelor approached China’s mainland in Wenling, eastern Zhejiang province on August 8, 2015/AFP

SHANGHAI, China, Aug 10 – The number of people killed by Typhoon Soudelor in China rose to 17, state media reported on Monday, with five more missing.

Three people were killed by a mudslide and one was missing after being swept away by floods in Ningde, in the eastern province of Fujian, the Fujian Daily reported.

In neighbouring Zhejiang province 14 were killed and four were missing, the official news agency Xinhua said earlier, quoting local officials as saying that the dead and missing may have been washed away by floods or buried under ruined homes.

The total direct economic losses in the two provinces were estimated at around eight billion yuan ($1.31 billion), figures from state media showed.

Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year last week with winds of up to 230 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, Soudelor – named for a Micronesian chief – has since weakened.

It made landfall in Fujian on Saturday night after leaving six people dead in Taiwan – including two twin sisters and their mother, who had all been swept out to sea.

It also knocked out power to a record four million households on the island.

Some 379 people were injured by the storm in Taiwan, which saw rivers break their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pound the coastline.

The China Meteorological Administration lifted its typhoon warning Monday as the storm weakened and moved further inland.

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