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Death toll from Goni rises to five

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-11 00:31

HAIKOU:The bodies of two people were retrieved in south China's island province of Hainan on Monday, bringing the death toll from the tropical storm Goni to five, local officials said.

The fourth was a fisherman who was killed when the fishing boat "Qiongdanzhou 00301" was wrecked at the Yangpu Port, while the fifth one, a fisherwoman, died after "Qiongdanzhou 52153" sank near Danzhou City, officials said.

Another two fishermen on "Qiongdanzhou 00301" and "Qiongdanzhou 00878", as well as four crew members on a Cambodian vessel are still missing, said an official with the Hainan marine search and rescue center.

The difficulty of rescue has increased as the provincial meteorologic center warned of continuous thunderstorms in northwestern Hainan in the following 24 hours, he said.

More than 1.6 million people in Hainan Province were affected by Goni, which forced local authorities to relocate 92,000, officials said.

It toppled more than 575 houses and damaged 2,311, as well as inundated 68,000 hectares of cropland, he said.

Goni landed in Hainan Wednesday and left China at 5 p.m. Sunday.