150 seamen missing after typhoon

HANOI, Vietnam -- At least 150 Vietnamese fishermen were missing and another 28 have been found dead after getting caught in a powerful typhoon in the South China Sea.

Officials said a total of 11 boats carrying 221 fishermen from the central city of Danang sank during the typhoon, and at least some of the men were unaccounted for, according to The Associated Press.

Nguyen Da Luong, a border control officer, said 60 people had been pulled from the water alive and 24 were found dead, AP reported.

It was unclear when the boats sank, but their last communication was around noon Wednesday, Luong said.

The survivors were located somewhere between Taiwan and the Philippines, AP reported.

In a separate incident, it said, another group of fishermen from Quang Ngai province also got into trouble during the storm. Four bodies were pulled from the water, while one person was found alive.

Before being downgraded to a tropical storm, Chanchu wreaked havoc in the Philippines before churning northwards to China, where it left 16 dead, the Reuters news agency reported.

The typhoon brought heavy rain and winds up to 170 kilometers per hour (106 miles per hour), as it made landfall between the Chinese cities of Shantou and Xiamen and worked its way up the coast early on Thursday, Reuters said.

The typhoon was the season's earliest to affect the eastern metropolis of Shanghai for 80 years, Reuters said.

Chanchu, which killed at least 37 people in the Philippines last weekend, had forced the evacuation of more than a million people in China and the cancellation of flights and ferries.

The storm caused agricultural losses totaling $5 million in Taiwan, where the country's central weather bureau lifted sea warnings late Thursday, Reuters said.

Typhoons, drawing strength from warm water, roar into China from the South China Sea every year between May and September, losing power once they make landfall.

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