Typhoon Doksuri makes landfall with 108mph winds in China after killing 40

28 July 2023 , 13:32

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A policeman checks vehicles hit by a landslide caused by Typhoon Doksuri (Image: AP)

Typhoon Doksuri has made landfall in China bringing 108mph winds after already killing 40 along its warpath.

Before hitting China, around 27 people tragically died in the Philippines when a wooden boat capsized during the ferocious storm. The Aya Express capsized in Laguna de Bay on Thursday, just 150 feet from shore. A further 13 people have died as a result of Doksuri's wrath mostly due to landslides, flooding and toppled trees, officials in the Philippines have said.

The fifth-named storm of the year for the region has battered the coastal county of Jinjiang in the Fujian province of China. The country has upped its typhoon preparedness through text messaging and notices on social media. In Fujian, more than 400,000 people had been moved to safety, hundreds of ships returned to ports and transportation suspended.

An infographic showing the impact of Typhoon Doksuri (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Businesses and summer school classes were also shut down and the public was urged to stay indoors. In the city of Quanzhou, the roof of a sports stadium was partially torn off, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

It comes as the skipper and two other crew members of the Aya Express may face criminal complaints as he set sail despite knowing that the boat was filled beyond capacity. Coast Guard chief Admiral Artemio Abu said: "On his [the skipper] way back to the boat, he said that he saw far too many people have gone onboard and he could no longer convince them to disembark."

Plane passengers stuck on flight for 13 hours - only to end up where they began

A man stands on the capsized passenger boat in the Philippines (AP)

Search operations are desperately continuing but as the passenger toll is unknown they have no idea whether anyone is still missing or not. Passengers panicked and rushed to one side of the ship as severe winds raged, causing the boat to tilt and ultimately capsize. "This is really a tragic event that has to be investigated," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Hostillo Arturo Cornelio told reporters.

A village council officer walks along a path muddied with flood water (ROLEX DELA PENA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Asked how many people were on the boat, Cornelio said it was unclear if there were more than the 66 who died or were saved. “We assume there could be more,” he said. Footage too gruesome to publish shows coast guard rescuers on a local government boat pulling a body out of the lake. Another 13 people were killed elsewhere in the country from the weather event.

In addition to the 27 ferry deaths, Doksuri left around another 13 people dead, mostly due to landslides, flooding and toppled trees. Plus a further twenty people, including four coast guard personnel, are missing after a boat overturned on Wednesday while on a rescue mission in the hard-hit Cagayan province in the Philippines

This photo taken by drone shows the remains of the passenger boat that capsized (AP)

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, overcrowding and poor safety regulations. In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker, killing more than 4,300 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

Rachel Hagan