Residents affected by a powerful typhoon decided to make the most out of the storm as they began catching fish from the flooded streets as soon as the heavy rain subsided.

Footage shows dozens of men and women ankle-deep in muddy water with nets and buckets catching fish and clams washed up by Typhoon Haikui in Fuzhou, in south-eastern China's Fujian Province.

The residents, who were faced with severe flooding brought upon by the typhoon, went out on the streets as soon as the weather cleared up on September 6.

In the video, grown-ups and children are seen filling up buckets with live fish found swimming in the shallow water collected in the street.

One of the people present, named Mr Wang, told local media they could only enter some parts of the city as many others were still severely flooded.

He saw many clams and was able to collect several pounds of them. Wang said others managed to catch a lot of tilapia, which is a common name used for certain species of fish belonging to the family Cichlidae.

Typhoon Haikui made landfall in southern China early on September 5. The storm interrupted schools, roads, and communication lines. More than 36,000 people were evacuated from their homes as remnants of the typhoon caused nearly 10,360 acres of farmland to be flooded, causing losses estimated at about CNY 552 million (GBP 60 million).

The typhoon later lost strength and got downgraded to a tropical storm, with rains that are expected to last until September 8 in central and southern parts of the province.