FIERCE winds and heavy rain caused 23 deaths, toppled homes and uprooted trees when Typhoon Sinlaku lashed Southeast China at the weekend.But Sinlaku was showing signs of weakening as it churned inland yesterday, officials and State media said.Sinlaku, the strongest typhoon that hit China this year, struck the mainland near the coastal city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, Saturday evening forcing some 300,000 people from their homes in Wenzhou and two other cities, Xinhua News Agency said. Five people were still missing yesterday afternoon.By midday yesterday, the storm, which at its peak brought winds of 40 meters per second, was weakening as it hit mountainous Jiangxi Province, and was unlikely to cause more damage, State television reported.An official at a disaster relief center in the hard-hit town of Cangnan, just south of Wenzhou, said at least 11 people had been killed and two were missing.The storm battered Cangnan from about 5:30 p.m. Saturday until just before midnight.The Shanghai Morning Post said yesterday Sinlaku’s strongest winds affected an area within a 350 km radius of the eye of the storm. The newspaper quoted provincial officials as saying Sinlaku had knocked down at least 7,900 homes in Zhejiang.An official with a relief center in coastal Fujian said the wealthy province was still tallying its storm losses. (SD-Agencies)