At least 10 people died and others were missing after a dam collapsed on Friday following torrential rain brought by Typhoon Haikui to eastern China's Zhejiang province, dpa reported. The breached dam on the Shenjiakeng Reservoir, which lies in hills on Daishan island near the city of Zhoushan, released a torrent of water that destroyed dozens of homes, according to state media photographs and reports. The 28.5-metre dam collapsed around 5 am (2100 GMT Thursday), killing at least 10, injuring 27 and leaving an unknown number of people missing in Shenjiakeng village, the reports said. The semi-official China News Service said about 80 homes, most of which were old wood and adobe structures, were destroyed and many were swept away in the flood. About 50 to 60 people lived close to the reservoir, and rescuers had evacuated more than 20 of them, the agency said. It showed paramilitary rescue teams searching mud and rubble in the village below the dam. Typhoon Haikui had already killed at least six people in Zhejiang and the neighbouring Shanghai, Anhui and Jiangsu regions since Wednesday. Authorities in the four regions evacuated some 2.2 million people as the typhoon brought gales and torrential rain, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported on Friday. About 5,000 buildings collapsed and 15,000 were damaged in the four regions, the ministry said. It said heavy rain and typhoons caused floods and landslides that killed at least 402 people across China last month and left 4.6 million people needing emergency relief.
