Over 400 Now Dead Or Missing In China From Typhoon Saomai - AFP

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Chinese rescuers had recovered the bodies of more than 100 drowned fishermen Monday, bringing the number of dead and missing from Typhoon Saomai in the country to over 400, officials and state media said. he total confirmed death toll in the three provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi reached 255, while more than 160 were still unaccounted for, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

In Fujian, whose long coastline forms the southeastern corner of the mainland, the grim task of hauling bodies from the sea brought the number of dead to 166, four times the figure reported the day before.

"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. "The dead and missing were mainly caused when ships and boats that had sought harbor to evade the typhoon were torn from their moorings by the strong wind, and then were shattered and sank."

Saomai, the eighth typhoon to hit China so far this summer, struck on Thursday last week. With winds of over 215 kilometers (135 miles) an hour, it was the most powerful to hit the mainland in half a century.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060814113838.y1jytdcq.html