Over 160 others are still missing after Saomai wrought havoc in the eastern provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

In Fuding, the worst hit city in Fujian, 138 people were killed, 1,350 injured and 86 others still missing.

Officials with Fujian Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said most of the people were killed when the super strong typhoon broke the moorings on their ships which had sought shelter in the harbor.

The others were killed in typhoon-triggered incidents on land such as flood, landslide and mud-flow.

Local authorities and residents are still searching for the missing.

The Fuding death toll update brings total fatalities in Fujian to a staggering 166.

"Saomai has caused severe economic losses and fatalities in our province," the Fujian provincial government's water resources department said in a statement posted on its website.

Previous reports listed 87 dead and 52 missing in east China's Zhejiang Province where Saomai barreled in, and two dead and one missing in nearby Jiangxi Province.

Saomai, the eighth typhoon to hit China so far this summer, was the most powerful to strike the mainland in half a century.

Saomai, graded a "super typhoon" with winds exceeding 216 km (134 miles) per hour, barreled into Cangnan county in Zhejiang province on Thursday, flattening tens of thousands of houses, knocking out power and communications and ruining crops.

The deaths in Fujian were mostly reported in the coastal town of Shacheng, bordering Cangnan, where more than 10,000 ships returned to harbor before Saomai's arrival.

"A lot of fishermen stayed on their boats, worrying that they might be damaged in collisions with other ships," Xinhua said. "The wind was so strong that it overturned many ships and a large number of people were killed or went missing."

"Fuding city has salvaged 97 bodies from the water, including 27 bodies of people who came from elsewhere and could not be identified," said the statement by the provincial government.

Much of south China has been repeatedly battered by typhoons and tropical storms this year, with nearly 1,000 killed by rainstorms, landslides and other disasters they brought even before Saomai hit.

According to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), another two tropical storms, Sonamu and Wukong, were respectively located at latitude 18.1 north, longitude 129.9 east and latitude 26.4 north, longitude 138.0 east. CMA experts believe they will not affect China in the next couple of days.

Source:Chinadaily