Matmo, the second typhoon to strike China in a week, on Wednesday battered the country’s southeastern coastline as the death toll from the super typhoon Rammasun rose to 56 with another 20 missing, authorities said on Wednesday.
After landing, typhoon Matmo, however, weakened as it downgraded to a tropical storm, making landfalls in China’s heavily populated Fujian province. The country’s weather agency said that Matmo had gusts of 108 kilometres per hour and was moving at 20 kilometre per hour.
Authorities in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, had ordered fishing boats to return to port and stepped up patrols to watch for breaks in coastal and river embankments, the official Xinhua News Agency said.