China Rescues 300 Vietnamese Fishermen After Typhoon
Date: 22-May-06
Country: CHINA
Rescuers found the survivors on 22 Vietnamese ships near the Pratas islands, off the southern coast of Guangdong province, the report said, adding it was the largest international marine rescue operation ever mounted by China.
It was unclear where the 21 bodies were found.
Typhoon Chanchu, the strongest on record to enter the South China Sea in May, the start of the storm season, left a trail of destruction in China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
It killed at least 37 people in the Philippines last weekend, and by late Friday rescuers had found the bodies of 44 Vietnamese fishermen after their ships were caught in storm's path.
The typhoon, with winds of up to 170 km per hour (106 miles per hour), killed 23 people in China after it slammed into the southern coast on Thursday.
Vietnam's Fisheries Ministry had listed more than 400 fishermen as missing from Danang city and the nearby provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.
Natural disasters, particularly storms and floods, kill hundreds of people in Vietnam each year during the May-October typhoon season.
