BEIJING - Natural disasters in China this year have killed 1,699 people and left another 415 missing, the nation's Red Cross Society has said in a report carried by the Xinhua News Agency.

The disasters have impacted on another 300 million people and led to more than 130 billion yuan (16.25 billion dollars) in economic losses, the Red Cross said Thursday, according to Xinhua.

The Red Cross said more than five million houses and 32 million hectares (79 million acres) of farmland had been destroyed, adding its figures had been verified by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Natural disasters killed nearly 987 people and left another 310 missing in China in July alone, the Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

Most of the deaths occurred during a series of typhoons which struck several provinces in southern, eastern and central China, Xinhua said.

The Red Cross report was released just as Typhoon Saomai, the strongest of eight typhoons that have hit southeast China over the past two months, made landfall on Thursday afternoon in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

More than 1.5 million people were evacuated from their homes as Saomai, which was generating winds of over 216 kilometers (135 miles) an hour, approached.