BEIJING (AFP) — Three people have been confirmed dead and 40 are missing after Typhoon Neoguri slammed into southern China at the weekend, state media reported Monday.
An 80-year-old woman and an 11-year-old girl perished when a mudslide inundated a road under construction in the south Chinese city of Shenzhen, the China Daily said, citing local officials speaking Sunday.
Another person was killed by an aluminium sheet that was blown by strong gales from a roof in Zhuhai, also a city in south China, according to the paper.
Meanwhile, rescue teams were scouring the seas off the south coast of China in search of 40 missing seamen, 18 Chinese and 22 Vietnamese, the paper said.
The Vietnamese embassy in Beijing asked for assistance for the 22, onboard a fishing ship in the South China Sea, but when Chinese rescuers arrived, they only found the vessel capsized, the paper said.
Neoguri, which has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it grinds its way inland, is the earliest typhoon to hit China in nearly six decades, with the first usually not arriving until late June.
The China Daily quoted meteorologists as saying the highly unusual timing reflected the La Nina effect, which they said also caused the coldest winter in decades early this year.
La Nina is a Pacific weather phenomenon, where fluctuating surface temperatures cause abnormal rainfall in and around Southeast Asia.
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