The Asia-wide death toll from Tropical Storm Chanchu rose to at least 88 yesterday, with 250 Vietnamese fisherman still missing at sea as the tempest moved offshore again after battering southern China.
The storm has cut a path of destruction across at least four countries and territories around the South China sea since it rose to typhoon strength and tore through the Philippines last weekend, killing 37.
Chanchu was downgraded from a typhoon on Thursday as it reached China's heavily populated southern coast, but was still powerful enough to cause landslides and flooding and force the evacuation of more than 1 million people.
Storm-induced landslides and building collapses killed 15 people in Fujian Province and left four missing, the provincial Water Resources Department said on its Web site.
Another eight perished in neighboring Guangdong province, it said, including a boy and girl aged five and six and their 68-year-old grandfather who were crushed when their home collapsed.
Taiwan and northern Vietnam were also pummeled by the storm's powerful winds and lashing rain, though it largely bypassed the port and financial center of Hong Kong.
Twenty-eight Vietnamese fishermen were killed and nearly 250 were missing after being caught up in the typhoon in two separate incidents, officials said yesterday.
Some 122 fishermen who departed from central Danang aboard six boats that sank during the storm were listed as missing, as were another 99 fishermen traveling in the same group in five other boats that were unaccounted for, said Nguyen Ba Luong, a border control officer in central Danang. The 221 people missing were the total aboard both boats.
It was unclear when or where the boats sank, but their last communication was around noon on Wednesday, Luong said.
Yesterday, 60 people were pulled from the water alive and 24 were found dead, he said. The survivors were located somewhere between Taiwan and the Philippines and have made contact with authorities. Authorities said it was unclear which boats the 60 survivors were on. Details remained sketchy because communication has been limited, Luong said.
In Taiwan, two women were swept to their deaths by floods in the Pingtung County.
High waves also swept away three 17-year-old male students swimming in Japan's Okinawa island chain, leaving one dead and another missing, said coast guard spokesman Shoji Kawabata.
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