Gale force winds whipping up northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have torn down trees, blown up growing fruit and vegetables and caused fires thatburned hundreds of houses and cattle, the local government said.

The whole gale, with a maximum speed between 49 to 56 miles per hour, stroke Turpan City and Toksun County every afternoon till early night from Tuesday to Thursday, leaving at least seven local people burned by fires which also destroyed more than 200 houses and killed 286 heads of cattle.

The gales also forced the No.312 and No.314 national trunk road sections in the region to shut down temporarily. The local government said the life and livelihood of at least 72 rural households in this sparsely populated region were affected.

"Strong winds like these happening for such a long time and on such a wide scale were rarely recorded during past years," said a spokesman for the local meteorological department.

Eyewitnesses said the sky was darkened by the fierce winds whirling up sands and rolling along stones while many irrigation channels were buried by the sands. Many farmers' vegetables like cucumbers and beans were completely bent while fallen apples, pears, peaches and apricots were seen everywhere.

The local government estimated direct economic losses had reached 2.32 million yuan (about 280,000 US dollars) by Friday.

Relief and rescue work is under way.

With its extremely hot weather in summer, Turpan is well known for its yields of peach, apricot, apple, pomegranate, pear, watermelon and musk melon.

Source: Xinhua