At least 39 people have died in flooding in southern China’s Guangxi region, according to local authorities, as a vast typhoon churns towards Taiwan and the eastern Chinese coast. The deaths, announced on Thursday, follow days of record rainfall from Tropical Storm Maysak, which caused reservoirs to fail and stranded thousands. A further nine people remain missing in Guangxi, while separate severe weather in central China’s Hubei province left 11 dead earlier in the week.

Most of the fatalities in Guangxi occurred in Hengzhou, where the partial collapse of a dam at Liulan Reservoir sent torrents of muddy water through communities, claiming 26 lives, officials in the regional capital Nanning said. Residents in affected towns described water reaching the second floor of buildings for the first time in living memory, and some told reporters they received no warning. Military rescue teams evacuated more than 10,000 students and teachers from inundated schools in Guigang, while a zoo in the same city reported over 100 animals missing, including zebras and alpacas. Authorities in Guangxi say floodwaters are receding but more rain is forecast.

To the east, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration issued land and sea warnings for Typhoon Bavi, which it described as the largest storm to threaten the island in three decades. The typhoon’s strong-wind radius of 380 kilometres prompted the closure of schools and offices in Taipei and other northern cities, and the evacuation of more than a thousand people, mostly from mountainous Hualien county. Japanese authorities placed remote southwestern islands on high alert, cancelling flights and urging residents to guard against landslides and flooding. Forecasts for Bavi’s track and intensity vary: Taiwan’s weather agency reported maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometres per hour on Friday, while earlier measurements had put the figure at 184 kilometres per hour. Chinese state media said the storm is expected to make landfall south of Shanghai, near the Fujian-Zhejiang border, though some international projections point to a landfall near Wenzhou.

In central China, thunderstorms and tornadoes killed 11 people in Hubei province on Monday night, local officials said. Separately, a landslide in western Gansu province on Tuesday killed 21 forestry workers in a disaster not linked to the storms. Rescue and relief operations continue across affected areas, and authorities caution that the death toll remains provisional as access to some flooded zones is still limited.