China on Saturday raised the death toll from Typhoon Talim to at least 54, while 23 more people were listed as missing, state media reported.
The death toll shot up after authorities in the eastern province of Anhui said 39 people, perhaps more, had lost their lives in the powerful typhoon and that nine were missing, the Xinhua news agency said.
In Wenzhou city, in east China’s Zhejiang province, 14 were confirmed killed, while nine were missing in a series of thunderstorms, landslides and cave-ins brought about by Talim, Xinhua said.
The eye of the typhoon has now passed over Anhui and is continuing inland, entering Jiangxi province, the state-run news agency said.
In the Lushan mountain area near Jiangxi’s border with Anhui, mudslides buried two buildings while 11 occupants were inside, Xinhua reported.
One was dead by the time rescue crews found him, and five others were injured. The remaining five were still missing by late Saturday.
The typhoon has caused severe property damage along its path, as heavy mud and rock flows have engulfed roads and flattened homes, according to the agency.
In the counties of Yuexi and Jinzhai, the worst-hit in Anhui, 400 000 people were affected by the typhoon, the agency said.
The Anhui provincial headquarters of flood control and drought relief described the heavy rains as rare in a historical perspective, Xinhua said.
The water level in 47 out of the province’s 112 medium-sized and large reservoirs remained above the danger line.
China reported earlier this week that floods had killed 1 024 people and left another 293 missing in China so far this year. — Sapa-AFP