Typhoon Fitow slams into China

BEIJING: Typhoon Fitow barrelled into China's east coast Monday, packing winds of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour, after hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and bullet train services were suspended.

At least three people were reported killed, all of them near the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, the state broadcaster CCTV said.

Parts of Zhejiang, which borders the commercial hub Shanghai, saw nearly 29 centimetres (11 inches) of rain over 17 hours from Sunday to early Monday, while areas in Fujian to the south saw up to 16 centimetres, the official China News Service said.

In the hard-hit county of Cangnan in Wenzhou, more than 1,200 homes collapsed and damages amounted to hundreds of millions of yuan, China National Radio said.

One of the victims, 55-year-old Ni Wenlin, died "after strong wind blew him off a hill" late Sunday, Xinhua news agency said, citing municipal flood control authorities.

Another person died of electric shock, CCTV reported.

In Fujian the typhoon snapped electricity poles in half, leaving power lines on the ground, and bent iron road signs out of shape, the radio reported.

In the coastal city of Ningde, a village leader told the Beijing Times that huge waves had damaged a 200-hectare (490-acre) seaweed farm, on which nearly 100 families depended for their livelihood.

At least 59 bullet trains in Zhejiang were cancelled, along with 22 flights from the provincial capital Hangzhou and 27 in Wenzhou, Xinhua said.

Sections of highways were shut and more than 350 buses from Wenzhou were cancelled.

Forecasters said the storm was expected to move northwest but weaken quickly.

But continued rainstomes were expected due to another typhoon, Danas, which was set to hit Japan's main islands on Monday.