Chinese death toll from Typhoon Bilis rises to 115

BEIJING - Torrential rainstorms and flooding unleashed by Typhoon Bilis has killed at least 115 people across southeast China, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

It said 43 people died in Fujian province, 39 in Hunan and 33 in Guangdong as swirling waters swept away homes and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Local rescue teams, backed by the army, moved in to scoop families to safety.

A mudslide triggered by the rains in the city of Zhangzhou killed 10 people and local officials held out little hope for a further 10 engulfed by a second landslide, state television said.

Emergency workers delivered tents, quilts and instant noodles to the victims of the storm.

Eleven seamen were plucked to safety before a Russian vessel sank in stormy seas off the Chinese coast on Saturday, Xinhua said.

Bilis ravaged the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China, where it was downgraded to a tropical storm but still wrought havoc.

Flooding cut the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, stranding 5000 passengers at the station in Changsha, Hunan's capital. Some 10,000 workers were repairing the inundated track.

In the city of Lechang, the streets were under 3 metres of water and more than 1600 inmates were evacuated from the local prison, Xinhua said. In Leiyang, water levels had risen more than 10 metres since Friday to record heights.

Local weathermen said heavy rains or rainstorms would continue in Guangdong for the next couple of days.

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

The storm also caused one death in southern Taiwan.

- REUTERS