Typhoon hits Chinese coast as 1.1 million evacuated, flights cancelled

WATCH ABOVE: Footage of Typhoon Chan-hom hits coast south of Shanghai.

BEIJING – Typhoon Chan-hom hit the Chinese coast south of Shanghai on Saturday with winds of up to 160 kph, as 1.1 million people were evacuated and hundreds of airline flights cancelled, state media reported.

The storm made landfall in Zhoushan, a city east of the port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, China Central Television and the Xinhua News Agency reported. Xinhua said no deaths or injuries had been reported by Saturday evening.

Some 1.1 million people were evacuated from coastal areas of Zhejiang and more than 46,000 in neighbouring Jiangsu province ahead of the storm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The provincial flood control bureau said 28,764 ships had been ordered back to port.

The national weather service said earlier the typhoon might be the strongest to strike China since the communist government took power in 1949. It initially was deemed a super-typhoon but was downgraded at midday Saturday to a strong typhoon.

The country’s railway service said more than 100 trains between the region’s cities were cancelled through Sunday.

More than 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain had fallen in some areas of Zhejiang since late Friday, and more than 400 millimeters (16 inches) in the village of Lai’ao, according to Xinhua.

A total of more than 600 airline flights were cancelled in the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Taizhou, according to Xinhua. Buses and passenger ferries suspended service.

Earlier, Chan-hom caused 20 injuries as it moved over islands in southern Japan, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the Okinawa prefecture government.

The storm dumped rain on the northern Philippines and Taiwan, where several flights were suspended. The stock market and public offices were closed Friday in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital.

Chan-hom is the second major storm to hit China this week, after Typhoon Linfa forced 56,000 people from their homes in the southern province of Guangdong province.