About 190,000 people evacuated as tropical storm hits S.China

More than 189,000 residents of Chinese southern island province of Hainan have been evacuated as tropical storm Nock-Ten hit the coastal region, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The storm came to the island on Friday and brought heavy rains and strong winds of up to 28 meters per second. One person has been injured while 148 houses have been damaged along coastal villages in Hainan's Guangcun Town, the agency quoted the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters as saying. However, the headquarters did not receive any damage reports from nearby Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which have also been hit by the storm. Nock-Ten is the eighth and most powerful storm which hit China this year. At least 31 people in the Philippines died as a result of the storm, according to the agency.