Storm death toll rises to 31 in south China

Shanghai, Aug 5: The death toll caused by Tropical Storm Prapiroon in south China rose to 31 today with 14 people missing, the official Xinhua news agency said, but the storm was weakening as it moved inland.

Nearly 4 million people in the southern province of Guangdong were hit by torrential rains after the storm made landfall there on Thursday evening, the news agency reported.

Direct economic losses were estimated at 2.4 billion yuan as Prapiroon triggered landslides, destroyed crops and caused homes to collapse, Xinhua quoted provincial officials as saying. Hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes.

But Prapiroon weakened as it moved inland into the Guangxi region, and by today early morning it had been downgraded from a storm to a tropical depression, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Before it hit China, Prapiroon killed six people in the Philippines. It disrupted hundreds of flights in the regional transport hub of Hong Kong, but the territory's airport had returned to normal operations today morning.

Prapiroon, which means ''God of Rain'' in Thai, was the sixth storm of the season to hit southern China. Tropical storm Bilis killed more than 600 people when it struck in July, and it was quickly followed by Kaemi, which claimed at least 30 lives.

Reuters