UPDATE - China: Rescuers end search of city after storms kill 98

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – Rescuers have finished combing housing debris for victims in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, after extreme weather conditions battered the city of Yangcheng overnight leaving 98 people dead.

Around 800 people were injured as rainstorms and hailstorms struck the city, and a tornado toppled houses.

At the peak of the storm, gales reached 125 kilometers per hour (77 miles per hour), destroying buildings, trees, vehicles and power lines.

On Friday, the official Xinhua News Agency cited the head of the Jiangsu provincial fire corps as saying that the search had been completed.

"The damage is terrible, I have not seen anything like this in years," Zhou Xiang said.

"The sudden tornado caught people completely off guard, resulting in a large number of deaths."

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang had responded to the disaster by instructing authorities to make every effort to rescue the injured and minimize casualties.