China evacuates people ahead of typhoon

Beijing

Super typhoon Chan-hom barrelled towards eastern China near commercial hub Shanghai on Saturday, prompting the evacuation of more than 865,000 people after earlier lashing Japan's Okinawa island chain and Taiwan.

 The powerful storm could be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Zhejiang province, which borders Shanghai to the south, for the month of July since 1949, China's National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said.

 At 9:00 am (0100 GMT) on Saturday, the typhoon was around 115 kilometres (71 miles) southeast of Zhejiang province over the East China Sea packing winds of up to 187 km per hour, the NMC said. It was forecast to make landfall in Zhejiang on Saturday in the afternoon, striking near the port city of Ningbo before approaching Shanghai.

 In addition to the large-scale evacuations, the province had called nearly 30,000 fishing boats back to port after waves reached up to 10 metres (33 feet) high off the coast, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Local television showed heavy rain and wind lashing the coastal province under grey skies.

 The storm left five people dead in the Philippines earlier in the week and injured more than 20 people in Japan on Friday as strong winds uprooted trees and battered buildings, the Tokyo Broadcasting System broadcaster reported. Four people were also injured by falling trees in Taiwan when the storm buffeted the island on Friday