Hong Kong - Hong Kong was getting back to business Saturday one day after Typhoon Nuri scored a rare direct hit on the city.

Nuri, which left seven people dead in the Philippines, weakened en route and had been downgraded into a severe tropical storm by the time it reached Hong Kong late afternoon.

However, it still managed to bring Hong Kong to a standstill and caused the hoisting of one of the highest storm warning signals, No. 9, for 9 hours - the longest time on record.

One swimmer was missing and feared dead, and 70 people were injured as the storm crossed Hong Kong, bringing winds of up to 129 kilometres per hour.

A total of 19 people were admitted to hospital, five in a serious condition and one critical.

Around 250 passengers escaped injury when high winds felled a tree causing it fall on a train at about 8:30 pm.

The missing swimmer a newly-wed man, had taken to the sea watched by his wife at Big Wave Bay, a spot popular with surfers, when the eye of the storm was passing over the former British colony causing a temporary lull in the late afternoon.

But he got into difficulty as gale forces winds whipped up the ocean causing unusually large waves. A search was later abandoned because of weather conditions.

The stock market, schools and government offices were closed on Friday, while workers stayed home, and ferry and tram services were halted. Airlines cancelled flights and by 6 pm, 388 passenger flights had been cancelled or delayed at Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok Airport. (dpa)