Typhoon hits China

Typhoon Krosa crashed into the Chinese coast yesterday, forcing the evacuation of 1.4 million people, after killing five in Taiwan as it lashed the island with heavy rain and high winds.

The typhoon made landfall near the borders of densely populated Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in southeast China around 0730 GMT, packing winds of up to 126 kilometres per hour, before weakening.

No casualties were reported and the local flood prevention authorities later downgraded Krosa to a common tropical storm as it lost strength moving north at 20 kilometres an hour, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tug boats were struggling in strong winds to rescue a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, with 27 crew on board, that was caught in the storm some 30 kilometres off the coast when its engines failed.

Xinhua said the Aladdin Dream, crewed by sailors from Russia, India and the Philippines, was in no danger of sinking or capsizing.

The authorities took no chances with Krosa, which means crane in Khmer.

Zhejiang province alone evacuated 962,000 people from the path of the storm, including half a million holiday-makers who had flocked to the seaside for China's week-long National Day holiday ending yesterday.