A man walks with a board through flood water in Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong province.
The death toll in the heavy rains triggered by typhoon Kalmaegi rose to 8 today, even as nearly 400 students were rescued from an inundated school in China's southwestern Yunnan province.
Heavy rains caused by the typhoon, which is the 15th typhoon to hit China this year, since Wednesday have flooded 53 counties and cities in Yunnan, leaving 390,000 people affected and resulting in an economic loss of US$55.86 million.
Typhoon Kalmaegi made a landfall in Hainan at a speed of 40 meters per second at 9.40 am on September 16 and has affected 5.97 million people in the southern Chinese areas of Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi after it landed in the island province of Hainan.
More than 500 rescuers have rescued 396 students and teachers from the Babu Township Middle School that was flooded yesterday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The meteorological bureaus in the affected areas are monitoring the typhoon closely and local governments are preparing against any potential landslides.