Beijing - Tropical Storm Prapiroon killed 18 people as it lashed south China with heavy rain and winds on Friday after forcing the evacuation of more than half a million and snarling transport links across the region.

China Central Television cited the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying the deaths had occurred in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan and the neighbouring region of Guangxi.

Waves crash against the guardrails of a pedestrian walkway in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong province, August 3, 2006. Tropical Storm Prapiroon killed five people as it lashed south China with heavy rain and winds on Friday, after forcing the evacuation of nearly half a million and snarling transport links across the region. [Reuters]

Another seven were missing, the official broadcaster said. It gave no further details on the deaths.

The official Xinhua news agency said earlier that five people were killed in house collapses in Guangdong, where the storm made landfall at typhoon strength late on Thursday.

Another person died in a landslide in Guangxi, where Prapiroon's brunt moved into on Friday but continued to weaken, Xinhua said.

More than 800 houses collapsed and 337 hectares of crops were destroyed in Guangxi, bringing direct economic losses totalling 23.8 million yuan ($2.98 million), it said.

Staff workers at the airport of the regional capital Nanning said many flights were cancelled or delayed on Friday.

More than 530,000 people across Guangdong, Guangxi and the island province of Hainan, where heavy rains are likely to continue through Saturday, fled their homes ahead of Prapiroon, which earlier killed six people in the Philippines.

State television showed pictures of huge trees uprooted by the roadside in the Guangdong city of Shenzhen.

Page:

1

2