Typhoon pounds south China: 6 killed

Packing winds up to 198km (124 miles) an hour, Damrey made landfall in the early hours of Monday after authorities had ordered the evacuation of thousands of people in hopes of avoiding a catastrophe.

"We are expecting a disaster but we have to minimize it," said Zhou, an official at Hainan's anti-flood headquarters.

"We tried to evacuate as many people as we could from dangerous areas, so we are hoping that this will not be a big disaster," he said.

So far 173,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas along China's southern coast, China Central Television reported.

Power in most of Hainan had been cut as the island's five power plants shut down as the storm raged, press reports said.

Officials in Vietnam meanwhile said 100,000 people were being evacuated there, with the storm expected to hit a dozen Vietnamese provinces later on.

In the Hainan city of Wenchang, more than 130 millimeters (five inches) of rain had fallen up until mid-afternoon, a meteorological official said, with the torrent expected to last all day.

All electricity in the city had been cut while at least two fatalities had been recorded by mid-morning, other officials said.