BEIJING, Aug 13: Typhoon Saomai killed at least 134 Chinese and left over 163 missing, state media said on Sunday, as reports emerged of fishing villages crushed by the strongest storm to make landfall for half a century.

An unknown number of fishermen were at sea when Saomai arrived in southeast China’s Fujian province, leaving anxious families with no news of their loved ones.

One local resident described how he walked along the coastline in the north of the province, near the fishing town of Shacheng, trying to identify the body of his wife’s uncle.

He said he came across several bodies that had drifted ashore but not the one he was looking for.

“The bodies had become so bloated in the hot weather that they were impossible to recognise,” he told AFP by telephone, asking not to be named. “We could only tell people apart from the clothes they were wearing.”

The Southern Metropolitan Daily reported from Shacheng on Sunday that many fishing vessels had disappeared, with families desperate to know what happened to their sons, husbands and brothers.

Saomai caused Shacheng to lose a staggering 1,000 fishing boats, while half its 8,000 families were made homeless when the storm flattened their houses.

An official at the Flood Control Headquarters of Fuding city near Shacheng declined comment when contacted by AFP, saying the death toll was still being verified.

Fuding also saw horrific damage, reporting 41 killed, 107 missing and 1,350 people injured as hundreds of houses collapsed, according to Xinhua.

The city’s Ziguo Temple, a priceless relic of Buddhist architecture more than 1,000 years old, was also severely damaged, Xinhua said.

Over 20 structures inside the temple compound had collapsed, causing almost ‘total destruction’, the agency said.—AFP