Typhoon in eastern China: 13 people killed

Thirteen people were killed and 16 were missing in eastern China on Saturday in a landslide triggered by a major typhoon, which also caused hundreds of flight cancellations and the evacuation of more than one million people, Report informs citing the RIA Novosti.

Typhoon Lekima made landfall early on Saturday in the eastern province of Zhejiang with maximum winds of 187 km per hour, although it had weakened from its earlier designation as a “super” typhoon.

China’s weather bureau on Saturday issued an orange alert, its second highest, after putting out a red alert on Friday, when the storm forced flight cancellations in Taiwan and shut markets and businesses on the island.

More than 250,000 residents in Shanghai and 800,000 in Zhejiang province had been evacuated due to the typhoon, and 2.72 million households in Zhejiang had power blackouts as strong wind and rain downed electricity transmission lines, state media reported.

Some 200 houses in six cities in Zhejiang had collapsed, and 66,300 hectares of farmland had been destroyed.