Fierce winds, pounding rain and rough seas battered southern China and Hong Kong on Wednesday as powerful Typhoon Ragasa churned toward millions of people in Guangdong Province after killing at least 15 in Taiwan.

Ragasa edged away from densely-populated Hong Kong and made landfall in Guangdong, after Hong Kong's weather service ranked the storm the strongest yet in the northwestern Pacific this year.

The typhoon's passage in Taiwan killed at least 15 and injured 18 when a decades-old lake barrier burst in eastern Hualien county under the storm's heavy rains, according to regional officials.

Authorities earlier said 152 people were unaccounted for, but later revised that figure down to 17, saying that they have made contact with more than 100 of those previously deemed missing.

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