Typhoon Chanchu landed in south China on Thursday, claiming two lives and stranding more than 6,400 people in Shantou, Guangdong Province.

Chanchu landed at 2:15 a.m. in Shantou and Chaozhou cities and brought gale-force winds and rainstorms to the southern coastal areas in China.

Two children died when the houses they lived in collapsed and another two elder people were injured, local government sources said on Friday.

A total of 192 houses in north Shantou were flooded and 2,985 families with 6,400 people were stranded at around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Government officials and 500 soldiers have been working to evacuate the stranded residents by press time.

The typhoon flooded almost all roads in Shantou City and had caused blackout on several occasions since Wednesday morning.

More than 630,000 people have been evacuated from China's southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian before the landing of Typhoon Chanchu.

It was clear after day break Thursday in Shantou. Air, sea and land traffic have resumed normal. All the primary and middle school in Shantou will resume classes Thursday afternoon after they were ordered to close on Thursday morning to prevent casualties. Kindergartens will reopen on Friday.

Chanchu, which means "pearl," formed in the Pacific, about 550 km east of Mindanao island in the Philippines on May 9. It hit central Philippines on Saturday, killing at least 32 people and leaving more than 1,000 others homeless.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2006)