Two million evacuated as typhoon hits China

The typhoon packed sustained winds of up to 100 mph (162 kph) and gusts up to 145 mph (230 kph).

It was losing force as it travelled north along the coast at about 22 mph (35 kph) and was expected to pass over Shanghai later today, state media reported.

The storm hit land near Cangnan in southern Zhejiang province, some 250 miles (400 kilometres) south of Shanghai.

State television showed streets flooded knee-deep in several regional cities.

Authorities in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian province ordered two million people evacuated from ships and coastal regions and from housing judged to be unsafe.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage caused by the storm on mainland China.

Yesterday, one worker was reported killed and another seriously injured as the fringe of the typhoon lashed Taiwan, knocking down scaffolding at a highway construction site in Taipei, Taiwan’s Disaster Relief Centre reported.

Dozens of flights through Shanghai’s two airports were cancelled or delayed.

Organisers of the women’s World Cup rescheduled today’s Shanghai match between Norway and Ghana to tomorrow and moved it to the neighbouring city of Hangzhou.

A game in Hangzhou between Brazil and Denmark today was moved to tomorrow.

Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to the south issued typhoon warnings requiring all vessels to return to shore or change course to avoid the storm.

Wipha, a woman’s name in Thai, was upgraded from a tropical storm on Monday.

Local meteorological officials said it would be the most destructive storm to hit the Shanghai area in years.

The deadliest storm to hit the China coast in recent years was Typhoon Winnie in 1997, which killed 236 people.