Saomai, graded a "super typhoon" with winds exceeding 216 km (134 miles) per hour, barreled into Cangnan county in Zhejiang province on Thursday, flattening tens of thousands of houses, knocking out power and communications and ruining crops.

The deaths in Fujian were mostly reported in the coastal town of Shacheng, bordering Cangnan, where more than 10,000 ships returned to harbor before Saomai's arrival.

"A lot of fishermen stayed on their boats, worrying that they might be damaged in collisions with other ships," Xinhua said. "The wind was so strong that it overturned many ships and a large number of people were killed or went missing."

"Fuding city has salvaged 97 bodies from the water, including 27 bodies of people who came from elsewhere and could not be identified," said the statement by the provincial government.

Much of south China has been repeatedly battered by typhoons and tropical storms this year, with nearly 1,000 killed by rainstorms, landslides and other disasters they brought even before Saomai hit.

According to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), another two tropical storms, Sonamu and Wukong, were respectively located at latitude 18.1 north, longitude 129.9 east and latitude 26.4 north, longitude 138.0 east. CMA experts believe they will not affect China in the next couple of days.