Chinese death toll from typhoon Bilis rises to 42

BEIJING, July 16 (Reuters) Typhoon Bilis killed at least 42 people and left more than 100 missing as it swept across southeast China at the weekend, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.

It said emergency workers rescued 11 seamen yesterday from a sinking Russian vessel in stormy seas off the Chinese coast.

Bilis ravaged the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China, where it toppled houses and caused widespread damage before being downgraded to a tropical storm.

Hardest hit in China was the inland province of Hunan province, where the storm killed 36 people. Six died in neighbouring Guangdong. Fujian and Zhejiang provinces reported huge economic losses but no casualties, Xinhua said.

In Hunan, the dam of a reservoir could collapse at any time because trees brought down by the storm were blocking the sluice gates, Xinhua said. Seven other reservoirs were in a dangerous state.

Disaster officials put the number of dead at 28 in the Philippines, where yesterday more bodies were found in swollen rivers and creeks and dug from dozens of minor landslides.

The storm also caused one death in southern Taiwan.

REUTERS SY HT0918