The death toll in China from Typhoon Saomai has risen to 295 on Tuesday, with the number likely to climb further, the Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

Distraught relatives and rescuers carry the body of a villager dug out from rubble in Jinxiang Township, Cangnan County in Zhejiang Province, August 11, 2006.  The reported death toll in China from Typhoon Saomai jumped to at least 214, after authorities in southeastern Fujian province said the number of fatalities there had increased to 125. [Xinhua]

The discovery of more bodies in devastated coastal villages near the city of Fuding in the southeastern province of Fujian led to the rise in the death toll, Xinhua said.

The city government said 178 people were confirmed dead by Monday night and 155 bodies had been salvaged. As another 94 people remain missing in Fuding, the toll is still likely to mount, Xinhua said.

"On Monday alone, 59 bodies were discovered in seawater off Shacheng Harbor," said Cai Meisen, vice mayor of Fuding.

The storm also damaged an 1,146-year-old Buddhist temple in the city, collapsing its gate house and 20 other buildings. The damage to the Ziguo temple totalled 5 million yuan (US$625,000).

Officials with Fujian Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said most of the people were killed when the super strong typhoon broke the moorings on their ships which had sought shelter in the harbor.

The others were killed in typhoon-triggered disasters on land such as floods, landslides and mud-flows.

Local authorities and residents are still searching for the missing.

The Fuding death toll update brings total fatalities in Fujian to a staggering 206.

Previous reports listed 87 dead and 52 missing in east China's Zhejiang Province where Saomai barreled in, and two dead and one missing in nearby Jiangxi Province.

Also in Zhejiang, at least 2.1 million people have been affected, 18,000 houses destroyed, 56 provincial roads and national highways swamped, causing losses of 4.89 billion yuan (US$611 million).

Saomai, the eighth typhoon in China this year, slammed into Cangnan County of Wenzhou City at 5:25 pm last Thursday. It was downgraded to a tropical depression by 11 a.m. Friday.

Saomai, the most powerful typhoon over the past 50 years, killed at least two people in the Philippines earlier and dumped rain on Japan.

Meanwhile, heat waves in Southwest China have caused blackouts, water shortages and an increasing number of people suffering sunstrokes, local media reported.

The highest temperatures there ranged between 35C and 40C; and water levels in many sections of the Yangtze River are historically low.

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