Rescuers in east China's Zhejiang Province helped a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, which had been trapped in the East China Sea by typhoon Krosa for more than 80 hours after an engine malfunction, back to port on Tuesday afternoon.

Dragged by a tug ship sent by the Salvation Center of East China Sea, the cargo ship, Aladdin Dream, reached the Wenzhou Port at 5:00 PM All 27 crew members from Russia, India and the Philippines were reported to be in a sound condition.

The ship, carrying 12,000 tons of steel, was trapped 28 nautical miles off Wenling on Saturday morning by typhoon Krosa and was in danger of sinking and capsizing in the strong gales and rainstorms.

Eight vessels and almost 200 rescuers were sent to the site, however, their efforts to rescue the ship were hindered by winds of more than 110 kilometers per hour.

"The wind was so strong that we could barely get close to the ship and the dragline thrown from the tug boats kept falling into water," said Liu Qiaoming, captain of a rescue boat from the Wenzhou Center.

The rescue boats stayed overnight with the cargo ship in the sea before the dragline was fixed one more time on Tuesday morning when the wind out at sea weakened, said Li.

Typhoon Krosa, the 16th this year, made landfall between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces on Sunday afternoon, but it quickly weakened to a tropical storm. It re-entered the East China Sea at 5:30 p.m. from Sanmen County in Zhejiang without causing casualties on the mainland.

Krosa has caused 460 million yuan in damage in Fujian, while Zhejiang reported losses of 7.5 billion yuan with more than 700 million people affected.

As Krosa leaves, the provinces affected have begun reconstruction work and more than 1.4 million evacuees have returned home.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2007)