Hurricane kills 3, injures 143 in China

The gale measuring force 12, the maximum on the Beaufort scale, hit Xiao county in Anhui province early Tuesday with a strength unprecedented in the area's recorded history.

"A total of 18,000 houses were destroyed when the hurricane struck," said Yang Nianwu, an official at the county's bureau of civil affairs.

"They either collapsed under toppled trees or were damaged by the hail," he told AFP by telephone from the ravaged area.

The hurricane came at the beginning of a week of bad weather across China that has already proved unusually lethal.

Two people drowned and six went missing in mountain torrents on Tuesday in northwestern Xinjiang region, while on Monday at least 14 were killed and 22 were missing after a huge mudslide in southwestern Yunnan province.