Searchers in southeastern China have found another body from rain-triggered landslides last weekend in Jiangxi province, raising the death toll to 16, state media said on Thursday (September 10, 2026).

The deaths were spread across three towns in Suichuan County, where heavy rain drenched the area for days after Typhoon Saudel came ashore on China’s east coast.

A mudslide in Gaoping town killed 13 people, state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report. Two others were found dead in Zuo’an town, and one other in Tanghu town.

More than 18,000 people have been evacuated in Suichuan County, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Two more people were killed in neighbouring Hunan province following rains brought by the typhoon, state media reported earlier. The CCTV report didn’t specify the cause of the deaths but said the rain had triggered landslides and other disasters.

Saudel made landfall twice in Zhejiang province on August 28 and a third time as a tropical storm in Fujian province on September 3. Jiangxi and Hunan lie inland from the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian.

Landslides in eastern China have killed 13 people with three others still missing, state media said on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), days after heavy rains unleashed by Typhoon Saudel.

A mudslide, which hit Mingkeng village in Jiangxi province on Saturday (September 5, 2026), left 12 dead and one missing, state news agency Xinhua said, citing local officials.

Another person was found dead and two others remained missing after landslides in the nearby townships of Zuo’an and Tanghu.

The landslides followed days of torrential rains brought by Saudel, which first made landfall on China’s eastern coast at the end of last month.

Several cities suspended work, schools and transport services in the face of the heavy rains.

The landslide in Mingkeng damaged homes and destabilised roads, according to Xinhua. More than 170 rescuers were deployed to the site to search for those missing.

The landslides come after devastating glacial floods in the Himalayas last month that have killed at least 43 people in Tibet, according to state media, as well as more than 1,300 people across the border in Nepal.

There are more than 5,000 missing in Nepal and another 519 on the Tibetan side of the border.

Scientists say climate change is accelerating glacial melting worldwide and making extreme storms more frequent, increasing the risk of such disasters.

China’s southern ‌coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong braced for further torrential rain on Friday (September 4, 2026), ​after severe downpours linked to Typhoon Saudel triggered flooding in urban and rural ⁠areas, swamping vehicles and causing a three-storey brick building to collapse.

In Fujian’s city of Fuding, known for its tea plantations and lush greenery, firefighters waded through waist-deep floodwaters to carry elderly people to safety, ‌social media footage verified by Reuters showed.

In nearby Jinxi village, a tea-growing community surrounded by mountains, raging floodwaters inundated residential buildings and brought down a three-storey house, ‌the footage showed.

Local authorities have shut schools, suspended public transport and enforced emergency ‌flood ⁠protocols across multiple coastal areas.

Saudel made its third landfall along the coast of ⁠Fujian on Thursday (September 3) morning after intensifying again over the South China Sea.

It is the seventh typhoon to hit China this year and the third to strike the city of Yuhuan in eastern Zhejiang in less than two months. ​The meteorological sequence is extremely rare, according ‌to the China Meteorological Administration, and one that experts say is closely linked to El Niño.

During an El Niño year, the Western Pacific subtropical high is exceptionally strong and positioned further north, guiding typhoons along a northwest trajectory directly toward China’s eastern coast. The ‌United Nations warned on Thursday (September 3) that the El Niño was set to intensify ​further into 2027 and could be the strongest ever, raising the risk of prolonged extreme weather.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been relocated ⁠across Zhejiang and nearby provinces since late August, including more than 83,000 residents evacuated in Fujian alone as Saudel tracked inland and soaked surrounding areas.

In Putian, a city in Fujian where the ‌Mulan River flows through the urban core, floodwaters spilled over main highways, damaged bridge structures, and inundated residential buildings, according to social media videos shared on China’s RedNote.

Local authorities are organising rescue teams to evacuate trapped residents, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday (September 4), adding that some people are missing.

Stronger, longer Typhoon season

Saudel follows Typhoon Narra, which dumped heavy rain across Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong provinces late last month.

Torrential downpours pose a high risk for secondary disasters such ‌as landslides, as recent rains have already pushed rivers over warning thresholds and inundated low-lying communities, the Ministry ​of Natural Resources warned.

Typhoons normally occur in the western Pacific, but Super El Nino conditions shift typhoon formation further east, said Hui Su, a professor in ⁠the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

“This typhoon season, ⁠we tend to see stronger typhoons form towards the east and they travel long distances and they get much stronger when they actually reach land, like ‌in China or like the southern part of Asia.”

This typhoon season could extend into December, rather than the usual end in October or November, because of an extended period ​of warm weather, Hui Su said.