Typhoon Mujigae Lashes South China: Authorities On Red Alert

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -- A typhoon with winds as high as 112 mph lashed China's southern coast Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction and flooding and prompting authorities to issue their highest "red alert" emergency response. Typhoon Mujigae made landfall near the coastal city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province at around 2:10 p.m. local time (2:10 a.m. EDT), the China Meteorological Administration said.

Television reports and images circulating on China's popular social media site Sina Weibo showed flooded streets and vehicles overturned by the fierce winds, although the official news agency Xinhua said there had not yet been any reports of casualties.

The typhoon had prompted coastal provinces in southern China to order fishing fleets to stay ashore and to cancel scores of flights and rail services. The main affected areas are the southern island province of Hainan as well as Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.

In Hainan and coastal Guangdong province, around 60,000 fishing boats were recalled to harbor to shelter from the storm, Xinhua said. It added some vessels had been caught out at sea with winds expected to be around between 100 and 112 mph.

The typhoon is likely to disrupt plans for thousands trying to travel during the current weeklong public holiday in China. Xinhua said about 80,000 people had traveled to Hainan Friday.

Meanwhile, the coast guard in the Philippines searched for 23 fishing boats with more than 120 fishermen lost when Mujigae hit the main island of Luzon.

Nearly 30 fishing boats with more than 150 fishermen were returning from the South China Sea when Mujigae caught them at sea, the regional disaster and risk reduction agency said in a report Sunday.

Cmdr. Armand Balilo, a coast-guard representative, said search-and-rescue ships were scouring the sea west of Pangasian, Ilocos and Zambales after two cargo ships bound for Japan had picked up nine fishermen from a capsized boat.

(Reporting by Adam Jourdan in Shanghai and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Ros Russell)