Aere struck southeastern Fujian province at 4:30 pm with force 12 winds and was expected to move up into Zhejiang province, where Typhoon Rananim left 164 people dead and 1,800 injured just weeks ago, a weather bureau official told

By evening, a villager was missing in Zhejiang and the storm had destroyed fish farms off Fujian and toppled many trees, the Xinhua news agency said.

China had braced for the typhoon as it tore through the region, claiming at least 12 lives in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines with leaving several people missing.

Some 320,000 people were evacuated in Fujian and more than 10,000 fishing boats returned to port, the China Central Television station reported.

In Zhejiang 249,000 people were evacuated and 31,500 fishing boats recalled, Xinhua said.

While Aere was expected to be weaker than Rananim, the most powerful typhoon to hit eastern China in 50 years, Chinese disaster relief officials said they were taking no chances after watching it lash Taiwan, where it killed six people with another nine missing.

Taiwan's financial markets, schools and offices were shut for a second day Wednesday as thousands of people in low-lying and mountainous areas were evacuated after flooding and landslides.

Power was cut to some 250,000 households and 770,000 lost water supplies. Rail links between Taipei and eastern coastal cities were interrupted.

Four of the dead in Taiwan were killed when mudslides triggered by downpours toppled their homes in a village in northern Hsinchu County, a rescue official said. Another resident in Hsinchu was killed after a pole fell on him.

Rescuers were meanwhile sent to check on television reports that 104 villagers could have been buried by the Hsinchu mudslides. "We have sent rescue teams to the remote village to check the authenticity of the reports," a rescue centre official told AFP.

A fisherman was also killed and four others were missing and presumed dead after two boats capsized off the north and east of Taiwan. Search missions were forced to suspend work due to Aere's intensity.

In the Philippines four people were killed and three were missing as heavy rains partly caused by Aere and another typhoon, Chaba, triggered a landslide and widespread flooding.

Parts of the capital Manila were under up to 90 centimetres (three feet) of water, paralysing traffic and forcing many schools to declare holidays.

In Japan two young girls were killed late Monday when they were swept away by heavy seas in the south, also hit by Aere.

Aere is expected to be the second strongest typhoon to ravage southern China this year after Rananim, which destroyed 42,400 homes and wiped out large tracts of farmland.

"Although Aere has slowed down, its intensity remains. It might be the second strongest typhoon after Rananim," Liu Zhengkun from China's Central Meteorological Observatory was quoted by Xinhua saying.

The observatory forecast strong winds and heavy rain Thursday in Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, which also were at high risk of landslides.

East China is prone to typhoons and has been pummeled by at least 15 over the past 50 years. The deadliest on record was in 1997 when 236 people were killed.

Meteorologists said Aere may combine with Typhoon Chaba, which had curved past the Mariana Islands and Guam in the north Pacific, leaving at least two people dead and another missing in the Marianas.

Chaba was moving north-northwest and was expected to hit Okinawa Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

TERRA.WIRE