Five people were killed and tens of thousands moved to safety as tropical storm Fung-wong lashed eastern and southern China, state media reported Thursday.

Four people were found dead in eastern Jiangsu province, while one person died and four were still missing in the southern province of Guangdong, Xinhua news agency reported.

The storm has caused a trail of devastation across the country's coastal areas, despite being downgraded from typhoon level when it made landfall in China on Monday after slamming into Taiwan, where it left two people dead.

The storm ripped through a clothing factory in Linze town in Jiangsu on Wednesday, injuring 90 people, four of whom died later in hospital, Xinhua said, quoting a local government spokesman.

Fung-wong also triggered a flash flood in Heyuan city in Guangdong, washing five timber workers away. One was confirmed dead and the four others were still missing, it quoted a spokesman as saying.

Parts of southern Fujian province were evacuated as the storm approached, with more than 600,000 people being forced to flee their homes earlier this week, according to previous reports.

The Fujian provincial flood control department put the economic losses from Fung-wong at one billion yuan (142 million dollars), according to Xinhua.

It said a further 58,000 people in eastern Jiangxi province fled from Fung-wong, the eighth tropical storm to hit China this year.