Typhoon Matsa kills at least 12 people in China

At least 12 people had been killed by yesterday in China because of heavy rainfall and flooding caused by Typhoon Matsa, which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, Chinese officials said.

The number of dead along the eastern Chinese coast rose to at least seven, with four of the dead coming from the coastal metropolis of Shanghai.

In the surrounding province of Zhejiang, where damages of 6.5 billion yuan (US$803 million) were reported, two people were killed and 130,000 houses destroyed. Another death was reported in Anhui.

"The number of victims would have been higher if the residents had not been evacuated in a timely manner," said Yao Yuewei, deputy director of the flood-control bureau in Zhejiang.

Matsa is the ninth typhoon China has seen this year.

The heavy rainfall ahead of the typhoon was blamed for a freak wave in a spillway of a water reservoir that killed five workers doing repair work. Those deaths occurred on Aug. 2, but they were first reported yesterday.

Matsa hit China on Saturday with winds up to 160km per hour, disrupting transport and cutting power, which it also did on Friday in Taiwan. It skirted Taiwan and caused no deaths, however.