Typhoon Sepat slams Taiwan, heads for China

Typhoon Sepat lashed Taiwan with strong winds and torrential rain yesterday, injuring 24 people, forcing more than a thousand to flee and cutting power to tens of thousands more before heading towards China.

In China's coastal areas, around half a million people had to be evacuated and flights were cancelled due to the typhoon, which had already caused flooding in the Philippines.

In Taiwan, two vehicles were crushed by a falling billboard in Taipei, scaffolding collapsed at a building in the outskirts of the city, and workers battled to clear uprooted trees that were blocking roads and repair snapped power cables.

About 33,800 homes in Taiwan were still suffering from power outages, after repairs were done in most of the nearly 590,000 homes that had no electricity, according to the disaster centre.

Agriculture losses totalled T$832 million (US$25 million), triggering market worries of increasing inflationary pressures as fruit and vegetable prices are seen rising sharply.

Taiwan Premier Chang Chun-hsiung urged Taiwanese to be vigilant of the impact from the typhoon, even though the storm was slowly departing, according to a government statement.

China's Xinhua news agency said that nearly 300,000 people in Fujian, about 210,000 in Zhejiang province and around 70,000 in Guangdong province were evacuated.

Twenty-four people were injured in cities and counties of Taipei in the north and Kaohsiung in the south, while another 2,240 people had to evacuate their homes in Taiwan, according to the National Fire Agency, Taiwan's disaster centre.