Chinese death toll from Typhoon Bilis rises to 97

BEIJING, July 16 (Reuters) Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis killed at least 97 people across southeast China, government media said today.

Hardest hit was the inland province of Hunan, where 78 people died and 110 were missing after the swirling waters swept away more than 30,000 homes, state television reported.

Local rescue teams, backed by the army, moved in to scoop families to safety. One baby was floated over the floods in a plastic basin and into the arms of waiting soldiers.

Xinhua news agency earlier put the death toll in Hunan at 48.

A mudslide triggered by the rains in Zhangzhou, a city in Fujian province, killed 10 people and hopes were fading for another 10 engulfed by a second landslide, television said.

Xinhua said Bilis also killed 9 people in Guangdong.

Eleven seamen were plucked to safety before a Russian vessel sank in stormy seas off the Chinese coast yesterday, the news agency added.

Bilis ravaged the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China on Friday. It caused widespread damage before being downgraded to a tropical storm.

Flooding cut the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, stranding 5,000 passengers at the station in Changsha, Hunan's capital. Tens of thousands more waited at Guangzhou station while workers raced to clear the line and railway workers worked overtime to provide refunds or to change tickets.

In the city of Lechang, where the streets were under 3 m (10 ft) of water, more than 1,600 inmates were evacuated from the local prison, 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 more bodies were found in swollen rivers and creeks yesterday and dug out from dozens of minor landslides.

The storm also caused one death in southern Taiwan.

REUTERS PR PM1901