Torrential rains and flooding caused by Typhoon Talim have claimed at least 31 lives and left 12 others missing in Anhui Province over the past three days, a provincial official said Saturday.

Flood waters and heavy flows of mud and rock also destroyed infrastructure facilities and flattened homes in the Dabie Mountain area of the province.

Preliminary investigation shows that in Yuexi and Jinzhai, two worst-hit counties, about 400,000 people suffered from the disasters and 46,000 hectares of cropland were affected.

The Anhui provincial government has sent two work teams for the rescue and disaster relief work.

Death toll in the disaster of the typhoon Talim has risen to 14 in Wenzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, local government said Friday night.

Other nine people are still missing in a series of thunderstorms, landsides and cave-ins caused by Talim, said sources from the local Headquarters of Flood Control and Drought Relief.

Talim pounded Putian in Fujian Province, Zhejiang's close neighbor, at 2:30 pm on Thursday, packing gusts at a maximum speed of 126 kilometers per hour.

According to preliminary statistics, a total of 2.22 million people in 335 townships of 18 counties have been affected in cities of Wenzhou and Lishui, both located in southern part of Zhejiang. Meanwhile, 11,789 houses were pulled down.

The direct economic loss was put at 3.42 billion yuan (US$421.7 million), local government said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2005)