Tropical storm Pabuk lashes southern China

BEIJING (AP) - Tropical Storm Pabuk lashed China's southern province of Guangdong, triggering floods and toppling thousands of houses, state media said Monday. No casualties were immediately reported.

The storm toppled 3,665 houses in the cities of Zhanjiang, Maoming and Meizhou and caused estimated economic losses of 1.342 billion yuan (US$171 million) over the weekend, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the provincial flood control headquarters as saying.

Water levels in five Zhanjiang reservoirs were above the warning lines, while another reservoir overflowed twice, Xinhua said. It said 5,920 people who had been stranded by floods in Zhanjiang had been rescued by Sunday, without giving details.

The storm, named after a large freshwater fish in Laos, earlier crossed the strait between Taiwan and the Philippines.

It triggered landslides that killed 11 people in the Philippines and disrupted power supplies in southern Taiwan.