China has rescued 14 fishermen but a search continued on Tuesday for 74 more still missing after their boats were hit by Typhoon Wutip, state media reported.
Official broadcaster CCTV showed four injured fishermen being carried onto a helicopter by rescue workers on Monday on an island known as Chenhang in Chinese, and as Duncan Island in English, in the Paracels Islands group.
The Paracels, known as the Xisha in Chinese, are disputed by China and nearby Vietnam.
The four injured were flown to a hospital in Sansha City in China’s tropical southern province of Hainan, and were in a stable condition, CCTV said.
The four survivors and the 74 still missing were all sailing from the southeastern province of Guangdong when their vessels were struck by the typhoon.
Zhang Jie, spokesman for the Hainan Maritime Bureau, said authorities had sent four planes and two rescue helicopters to accompany a sea rescue team of 13 ships.
“We have already relocated the rescue area according to the where the captain found the wreckage and sent the various rescue ships to the different areas,” Zhang said.
Typhoons gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall.
They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a typhoon season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.
2013 ABS-CBN Interactive