Torrential rains brought by Typhoon Soudelor, the 18th typhoon of the year, have caused widespread damage in China's southeastern Fujian province, flooding homes and leaving residents missing.

According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency and other reports on the 4th, Putian in Fujian province announced that torrential downpours brought by Soudelor submerged some houses, stranded residents, and resulted in missing persons.

Local authorities deployed rescue personnel to move stranded residents to safe locations while launching searches for the missing.

However, Xinhua did not report detailed damage statistics.

Soudelor made landfall around 6:30 AM the previous day along the coast of Zhangzhou in Fujian province, with a maximum wind speed near its center of 23 meters per second.

This marks its third landfall in China, following consecutive landfalls in Taizhou and Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on August 28.

Soudelor showed an unusual path: it weakened while moving inland into China, moved out into the South China Sea, and then redeveloped to make landfall in Fujian once again.

Due to the typhoon and its outer circulation, over 100 mm of rain poured across parts of Fujian province over a 24-hour period starting from 6:00 AM on the 2nd, with some areas recording precipitation exceeding 250 mm.

In Fuding, Ningde, the so-called "China's Best White Tea Street" was submerged, causing damage such as local specialty white tea stored in shops getting flooded and vehicles washing away.

Fujian authorities evacuated approximately 83,700 residents from dangerous areas, and measures such as suspension of school and business operations, as well as halted factory operations, were issued in Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and other areas.

Although Soudelor weakened into a tropical depression late the previous night, Chinese meteorological authorities expect heavy rains to continue in parts of Fujian and Guangdong.

(File Photo: Yonhap News)