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Typhoon Megi: Rescuers pull 15 out from China landslide, dozens still missing
By Ben Blanchard
Beijing: Rescuers have pulled 15 people alive from a landslide that slammed into a village in China's eastern Zhejiang province after it was hit by a typhoon Megi but 32 people were still missing on Thursday night.
Heavy rains brought by the remnants of Megi caused the landslide to crash into Sucun village on Wednesday.
The massive typhoon made landfall in eastern China, a day after carrying strong winds over Taiwan and killing at least four people and injuring more than 523.
It weakened to a tropical storm after hitting the coastal city of Quanzhou before dawn on Thursday, packing winds of up to 118 kilometres an hour.
The injuries in Taiwan included eight Japanese tourists travelling in a tour bus that turned on its side in central Taiwan.
Pictures on the microblog of official provincial news portal Zhejiang Online showed landslide survivors being carried out on the backs of rescuers, while others dug through rubble to find survivors.
It gave no details of the 26 still missing Sucun other than to say one was an official who had been in the village to organise evacuations. Other were missing from a nearby village.
A mass of debris rolled down a lush mountain towards the small village, according to images posted on Zhejiang Online.
Six people in Baofeng village in the same province were also missing after their homes were destroyed by a separate landslide, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Mountainous Zhejiang, along with its neighbouring provinces, are frequently hit by typhoons at this time of year and are also highly susceptible to landslides.
Reuters