Storm hits China showcase town

Buildings were felled by the storm

At least 32 people have been killed and about 1,000 injured in southern China by Typhoon Dujuan, according to state media.

Most of the deaths were in the government's showcase economic zone of Shenzhen, where the storm flattened shacks and shanties used to house the city's many migrant workers.

Sixteen people died on a construction site there, where a partly-built factory collapsed onto their homes.

Dujuan had already lashed Taiwan and Hong Kong, but it wreaked the most damage in China, despite being downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit the country.

It made more impact on Shenzhen than any other typhoon in the last 20 years, according to the local Shenzhennews website.

It said that residents were not given sufficient information to protect themselves.

Guangdong province's Huizhou, Guangzhou, Shantou, Shanwei and Dongguan cities were also affected, according to the Southern Daily's website.

The province had incurred losses of around 2bn yuan ($241m), a spokesman for Guangdong told Xinhua.

Hong Kong had a lucky escape, says our correspondent there, Chris Hogg.

The territory was spared a direct hit, and although there was some flooding the typhoon caused no major damage.

Click here for a map of the typhoon's route

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Nonetheless the force of Typhoon Dujuan was still sufficient to fell at least 85 trees and cause extensive power cuts, and officials said 22 people on Hong Kong Island sustained typhoon-related injuries.

Typhoon Dujuan is the strongest to batter the region for four years.

It first hit south-eastern Taiwan on Tuesday, killing two people and cutting electricity to more than 500,000 households, before narrowly skirting Hong Kong and hitting China.

It has weakened to a tropical depression which is continuing to move west.