Typhoon Meranti has left at least 16 people dead or missing in China and an ancient bridge destroyed as it wreaked havoc on the country's eastern coast, the government said Friday.

The storm, described by the official Xinhua news agency as the world's strongest typhoon this year and the worst to hit Fujian province since records began in 1949, had killed seven people by Friday morning, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement.

Another nine people were missing and more than 330,000 residents had been relocated, it added.

The typhoon, which had earlier skirted the southern tip of Taiwan, made landfall in Xiamen early Thursday packing winds of around 170 kilometres per hour (105 miles per hour) and bringing downpours across the province, said the statement.

Flooding destroyed an 871-year-old bridge that was a protected heritage site in Yongchun county, Xinhua reported Friday.

At one point more than 3.2 million homes had their electricity cut off and water supplies for many communities in Xiamen were disrupted, it added.

The storm had weakened to a tropical depression on Friday.

Super typhoon blows away 'moon' in southern China
Beijing (AFP) Sept 15, 2016 –

Super Typhoon Meranti sent a massive inflatable moon bobbing through the streets of southern China's Fuzhou, smothering cars and sending at least one motorcyclist fleeing for cover, as the powerful storm lashed the mainland.

Footage broadcast by state television showed the inflatable moon bowling over traffic in the city with the typhoon packing winds of 170 kilometres per hour (105 miles per hour), according to state media.

AFP was unable to confirm where the moon originated from and what fate the inflatable object eventually met.

The Xinhua news agency described the storm as the most powerful to hit Fujian province in at least 67 years, with meteorological records only going back to the founding of modern China in 1949.

Local media described windows broken by flying roof tiles with fragments littering pavements and water supplies cut.

Officials had earlier urged people to stay at home and ordered ships to return to port as Meranti bore down on the mainland, having lashed Taiwan on Wednesday.

The storm left one person dead and 38 injured after skirting past the island's southern tip with the strongest winds recorded there in 21 years.