A 370-year-old castle in southeast China's Fujian province has collapsed after being pounded by a series of typhoons this summer, state media reported.
The unique round fortification, located in Yunxiao county, suffered severe damage as both part of the outer wall and nine buildings inside had given in, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The ancient fortification, built with a mixture of lime, clay and sand, had gradually eroded after the moat had been flooded by the violent rains of the past few months, according to the agency.
"Fortunately nobody was injured or killed," said Tang Yuxian, curator of the county museum.
The castle was originally built as a defense against Japanese pirates, and had proven of great value to local historians, Xinhua said.
Tropical storm Prapiroon, until recently classified as a typhoon, is currently sweeping across south China, were it has killed 57 and left 16 missing.
Prapiroon was southern China's sixth typhoon of the storm season, which started more than a month earlier than usual with Typhoon Chanchu. It made landfall on May 18.
The worst was Bilis, which struck on July 14 and hovered over southern China for 10 days, killing at least 612 people, according to earlier state reports.
