Typhoon batters HK, Macao; 6 dead

Hong Kong/Beijing, August 23 

Typhoon Hato left five dead in the gambling hub of Macau today as it brought chaos and destruction to the enclave after sweeping through neighbouring Hong Kong, where one man also died.

Local media showed severe flooding had left cars underwater and people swimming in Macau's city streets, with the territory's mega-casinos running on back-up generators.

The Macau government said one of the men died after being injured by a wall that blew down, another fell from a fourth floor terrace and another was a Chinese tourist hit by a truck. Details on the two others who died were not immediately available.

Apple Daily showed footage of people swimming through muddy water in what are usually roads, and being swept off their feet by winds. The sprawling Venetian casino resort was on back-up power and without air conditioning or proper lighting.

Hato, the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, later made its landfall in the city of Zhuhai in the southern Guangdong province, killing at least seven persons.

Hato, the 13th typhoon to hit China this year, made landfall at noon, bringing winds of up to 45 metres per second to the mouth of the Pearl River and heavy rain to nearby regions, the local meteorological bureau said. When the typhoon swept past Macao, a wall brought down by strong winds killed a man.

Another person died after falling from the 11th floor of a building, and a third after being hit by a truck, Macao health authorities were quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

In Guangdong, four people have died and one remains unaccounted for. The government has evacuated 26,817 people to temporary shelters. About 664 hectares of farmland has been damaged.

Power transmission facilities suffered heavy loss, disrupting electricity supply to 1.91 million households. Alerts for landslides, flooding, and other geological disasters have been issued. — AFP