74 people missing after 3 fishing boats sink in South China sea

A total of 74 people have been confirmed missing after three fishing boats have sunk in a typhoon in South China Sea, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The boats, all from south China's Guangdong Province with 88 fishermen aboard, were lost on Sunday afternoon as they attempted to navigate gales near the Xisha Islands, about 330 km from China's island province of Hainan, sources with the Hainan maritime search and rescue center was quoted as saying. As of Monday noon, rescuers had retrieved 14 survivors, the sources said. The rescue operations had been hampered by strong gales and high waves on the sea, the report said. Altogether five fishing boats with a total of 171 people aboard were caught by Typhoon Wutip, the 21st of the season. President Xi Jinping has demanded an all-out rescue effort, urging local authorities to do their utmost to find the missing or stranded and minimize casualties. Xi also ordered the armed forces and central government departments to help in the rescue. China's maritime authority on Sunday upgraded its wave warning from yellow to orange, the second-highest of a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, as the typhoon approached land. Wutip is expected to make landfall on Vietnam's central coast on Tuesday.