The strongest typhoon to hit China this year has killed at least 45 people, state media reported on Monday, as authorities stepped up rescue efforts to locate 16 missing people after the storm displaced more than a million residents.
Lekima, the ninth typhoon, hit Wenling city on Saturday afternoon, packing winds of 187 kilometres per hour and bringing heavy rainstorms.
The typhoon has left 45 people dead and 16 missing in three Chinese provinces, wreaking havoc there with torrential rains and strong gales, Xinhua news agency reported.
In the Zhejiang Province, Lekima landed at around 1:45 am (local time) on Saturday in the city of Wenling.
By Monday morning, the death toll in the province rose to 39 while nine others remained missing, said the Zhejiang provincial flood control headquarters, the report said.
The typhoon has affected 6.68 million residents in Zhejiang, among whom 1.26 million were evacuated. It damaged 234,000 hectares of crops, inflicting a direct economic loss of 24.22 billion yuan (about USD 3.4 billion), it said.
Lekima hit the Shandong province later on Sunday at 8:50 pm (local time) on the coast of Qingdao.
In Shandong, it has left five persons dead and seven missing, affecting 1.66 million people and forcing the relocation of 183,800 as of Monday morning, said the provincial emergency management department.
In the Anhui Province, one person was killed and over 10,000 evacuated as flooding damaged houses, crops and roads and disrupted electricity and telecommunications supply, the report added.
The typhoon also brought havoc to Liaoning Province as it moved northward, with the largest precipitation in the coastal city of Dalian reaching 309.3 mm, it said.
In the northeastern province, more than 106,000 residents have been relocated, 28 trains disrupted and all major tourist destinations closed.
Most of the deaths occurred in Yongjia County, administered by Wenzhou City, where torrential downpours caused a landslide that blocked a river.
Over 16 civilian rescue teams have volunteered to rescue stranded residents in Linhai, local authorities said.
Rescue workers have been using boats and rope pulleys to help stranded residents.
Around 3,200 flights have been cancelled due to the typhoon, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
With the typhoon sweeping through Shanghai, about 253,000 people in the city had to be evacuated to safe places, Shanghai flood control authorities said.
