Typhoon tears through China

About 300,000 people had to be evacuated

Chinese officials are beginning to count the cost of Typhoon Sinlaku, the latest typhoon to batter the country this year.

Fierce winds and heavy rains caused widespread destruction in the south-east, where the typhoon, named after the Micronesian god of breadfruit, hit the mainland on Saturday.

At least 26 people are reported to have been killed, four are still missing and more than 300,000 people had to be evacuated from three cities.

The clean-up operation is already underway

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed in the storm and the cost of the material damage is estimated to be more than $100m.

Earlier on Saturday Sinlaku left two people missing in Taiwan, but spared the island from the massive casualties and damage that had been predicted.

On Thursday of last week the typhoon caused widespread damage as it crossed the Japanese islands of Okinawa.

Buildings collapsed

The typhoon had been pushing winds of 144 kilometres per hour (87 miles per hour) as it made landfall in China.

It lost power as it moved inland towards the mountainous Jiangxi province and is not expected to cause any further damage, state media reported.

In coastal Zhejiang province 7,900 buildings were destroyed and 32,000 damaged, according to the China News Service, with 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of crops destroyed.

Sinlaku has already pummelled Taiwan

In neighbouring Fujian province, around 35,000 buildings collapsed and 72,000 more were damaged, the agency said.

The worst hit area was the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Shanghai, where hundreds of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes.

There were also mass evacuations in the cities of Taizhou and Ningbo before the typhoon hit.

Relief camps

By Monday morning most had returned home to begin the task of cleaning up after 14,000 homes and buildings in the city were destroyed by high winds and landslides, according to officials.

But thousands are still living in tents at emergency relief camps, officials from Wenzhou's Disaster Relief Office said.

Twenty-three people were killed in Wenzhou and the surrounding area and one person was reported missing, a Disaster Relief official named Zhang said.

Mr Zhang said that electricity has now been restored to the city and $850,000 worth of food, blankets and clothing had been distributed to those left homeless.

Last week China's Ministry of Civil Affairs reported that more than 1,500 people have died in flood-related disasters this year, with an estimated material damage bill of about 68bn yuan ($8.2 billion).