UpdateTyphoon Soudelor kills 12 in China: state media

Typhoon Soudelor killed 12 people in eastern China and five are missing after parts of the country were hit by the heaviest rains in a century, state media reported Sunday.

The casualties were reported in and around Wenzhou city in the province of Zhejiang, where downpours caused mudslides and several houses collapsed on Saturday night, Xinhua news agency reported.

It quoted local disaster relief officials as saying the dead and missing may have been washed away by floods or buried under ruined homes.

About 1.36 million people in the city were affected by the typhoon, the agency said, estimating direct economic losses at 3.83 billion yuan (US$617 million).

Nearby Wencheng county saw downpours of 645 millimetres (25.4 inches) in 24 hours -- the heaviest in 100 years -- after the typhoon made landfall on Saturday night, it said.

The storm had landed in Fujian province and cut power to more than three million homes there, Xinhua said, but more than a third had electricity restored by Sunday morning.

Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year last week with winds of up to 230 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, Soudelor -- named after a legendary Micronesian chief -- has since weakened.