Chinese Question Typhoon Death Toll

China's death toll from Typhoon Saomai, the country's strongest in five decades, rose to 319 on Wednesday, while villagers said the true number of dead was much higher and accused the government of failing to give adequate storm warnings.

Rescuers found another 24 bodies in waters off Fuding, a port city in coastal Fujian province that suffered the majority of deaths after Saomai roared ashore last week, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

By Tuesday, 202 people were confirmed dead in Fuding, Xinhua said.

"This is the biggest calamity Fuding has ... seen since 1949," Yang Zhiying, vice director with the Fujian Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Some 175 bodies have been recovered from the ocean and many more were expected to be found because scores of fishermen had been out at sea when the storm hit, the Web site Sina.com said. It said another 27 were found on land.

Saomai tore a 20-kilometer (12 mile) path of destruction through Shacheng, a village on the outskirts of Fuding, ripping off roofs and crumbling walls, Sina said.

A black tent was filled with bodies, Sina said.

"This is so tragic!" it quoted villager Lin Yuetian as saying.

More than 10,000 fishing boats had taken shelter in Shacheng harbor, but thousands were sunk by the fury of Saomai's winds, Sina said.

The total death toll in Fujian stood at 230, while neighboring Zhejiang province reported 87 deaths. Two more people were killed in the inland province of Jiangxi, Xinhua said.

Residents in Fuding and its surrounding villages say the number of dead is higher than reported and accuse the government of failing to warn the public adequately. Family members of the dead say at least 1,000 people were killed in the storm, Xinhua said on its Web site.

"The government took too much for granted," one villager in Nanzhen said by telephone. "They only broadcast the typhoon forecast on TV, but a lot of fishermen who live on or near their boats do not watch TV at all."

"We didn't get enough warning about this typhoon. That's the main reason for such a loss," said the villager, who refused to give his name for fear of official retaliation.

"You cannot believe the so-called official figure" for deaths, the man said. "They are trying to cover up the truth."

Local officials are frequently accused of trying to conceal the extent of industrial accidents, natural disasters and other calamities, fearing both official punishment and public anger.

In Nanzhen alone, 80 people were killed and hundreds more were missing, the villager said. He said scores of bodies were bloated beyond recognition.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper said the mayor of Fuding was confronted by angry villagers in Shacheng when he visited on Monday.

"His car was surrounded by angry victims' families ... and was booed, pushed and pelted with stones," the newspaper said. It said the villagers tore his shirt.

Saomai, the Vietnamese name for the planet Venus, was the eighth major storm to hit China during an unusually violent typhoon season.

The Chinese weather bureau said Saomai was the most powerful typhoon since its record-keeping began in 1949, though not the deadliest.

In 1956, a typhoon with winds up to 234 kph (145 mph) killed 4,900 people in Zhejiang.