Chebi's death toll rises to 13 in Taiwan, 12 missing

The death toll from Typhoon Chebi (奇比) rose to 13 yesterday after the coast guard found the bodies of eight Chinese crew members from a Belize-registered vessel that went missing off southern Taiwan on Saturday.

Chebi's trail of destruction came at a much higher price in China, where state media reports said more than 160 people were dead or missing after the typhoon made landfall in Fuzhou, Fujian Province late on Saturday.

All but two of the 73 Chinese victims were killed in Fuzhou.

The death toll in Taiwan includes four men who drowned after falling into the sea and a fifth who fell from the balcony of his second floor home on the offshore island of Penghu.

Chinese-language media reports said 116 people in Taiwan were injured in the storm, 12 of them seriously. Twelve people are still listed as missing.

Most of the injured were Penghu residents who were hit by debris.

A total of 109 fishing boats and four yachts sank in Penghu during the storm.

Taiwan officials estimate damage to crops at NT$456.8 million (US$13.3 million).

According to news reports in China, the typhoon caused damage of at least US$422 million in Fujian.

An official with the Fujian Flood and Drought Relief Command said Chebi hit the Chinese coast on Saturday night and stayed over land for only 10 hours before heading back out to sea and weakening. Its remnants brought heavy rain to South Korea yesterday.

Taiwan's coast guard and navy vessels and helicopters continued to search yesterday for 11 missing crew members from the Belize-registered Kuang Yuan (廣源輪). Officials, however, said that the search would end soon.

Four other crew members

rescued over the weekend were taken to hospitals in Chiayi and Tainan, a spokesman for the National Fire Administration said yesterday.

The Kuang Yuan had sent a distress signal before it went missing, fire administration officials said. It was carrying 5,700 tons of iron ore and was on its way to Tainan from the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian.

Meanwhile, six crewmen from a Taiwan fishing boat that went missing in Philippine territorial waters during a tropical storm on Friday are still listed as missing.

In addition to the Taiwanese skipper, the other crew on board the Ching Ching Fa 16 (清慶發十六號) were four Filipinos and one Indonesian.

The fire administration said a US reconnaissance aircraft had found the ship overturned 44.5km east of the Philippine island of

Itbayat. No survivors had been found.