Floodwaters washed away two residential buildings at the Fuzhou Command School of Armed Police in Fujian province, Xinhua news agency said.

President Hu Jintao ordered an all-out effort to find the 59 missing trainees after the accident Sunday night, and military and police teams were sent immediately to coordinate operations, it said.

At least three people were confirmed dead as Longwang moved inland, bringing heavy rain and strong winds, officials said.

The three died in landslides, the Fujian Water Works Office said on its website. The storm has also destroyed 5,400 houses and crops on over 26,000 hectares (64,220 acres) of farmland in the province.

The typhoon lashed Fujian for 10 hours, uprooting trees and causing extensive flooding which affected some 2.46 million people, it said.

The provincial governments of Fujian and Guangdong evacuated nearly 600,000 people as the storm approached after churning across Taiwan, where it left one dead, one missing and 46 injured.

Most of the injured in Taiwan were hurt by flying debris or broken glass in the eastern county of Hualien which bore the brunt of the storm.

In Fujian, the storm caused direct economic losses worth 1.2 billion yuan (148 million dollars), with the capital city Fuzhou recording 278 millimetres (11 inches) of rainfall.

But the cyclone weakened considerably after landing late Sunday night near Jinjiang, packing winds of up to 120 kilometers (73 miles) per hour at its center.

"The typhoon has quickly weakened into a tropical depression," said an official at the meteorological bureau in Fujian province.

"It is not having too big an impact here. There are rainfalls in some regions but they are not too bad," he told AFP.

The Hong Kong Observatory forecast the typhoon would fizzle out as it moves inland at 20 kilometres (12 miles) per hour.

Despite this, strong gales and heavy rains were still expected in coastal areas of southern China, sparking fears of further landslides, the China News Service said on its website.

In Xiamen, a popular tourist resort near where Longwang landed, nearly 40,000 fishing boats were ordered back to port, while major highways and the Xiamen International Airport were shut down.

Two other smaller airports in the province also faced disruptions, with many tourists cancelling their trips, the Fujian provincial flood control office said.

But despite high winds and torrential downpours, the Xiamen city flood control bureau said no injuries or major damage had been reported in the city.

"It arrived in Xiamen last night but there have been no casualties or damage. The wind has now stopped and there are just intermittent rains," an official surnamed Chen told AFP.

"Travellers are able to resume their normal activities," Chen said.

With the storm also threatening the southern province of Guangdong, authorities there evacuated 61,860 people near coastal areas, on top of the 537,000 moved to safety in Fujian.

But it too appears to have escaped the worst, provincial officials said.

East and southeast China are prone to tropical storms and typhoons, two of which caused widespread destruction and killed scores of people last month.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
SinoDaily
Search SinoDaily
Subscribe To SinoDaily Express