Beijing ? A powerful typhoon pummeled southern China on Thursday, killing at least 21 people and leaving 27 Vietnamese fishermen missing after their boats sank in Chinese waters.

Chanchu, which was downgraded to a tropical storm, has killed more than 60 people in Asia, including 37 last weekend in the Philippines, where it destroyed thousands of homes.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said today that 13 people died from flooding and landslides in the southeastern province of Fujian. Another eight died in neighboring Guangdong province.

By early today the dramatically weakened storm had moved into the East China Sea.

The storm hit the coast of China early Thursday, flooding scores of homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 1 million people before weakening to a severe tropical storm.