Typhoon Gaemi barrels towards China’s Fujian after sinking ship off Taiwan

Strong winds sink a Tanzania-flagged freighter off Taiwan coast, with crew missing and rescuers unable to access area.

Typhoon Gaemi is sweeping towards southern China after wreaking devastation in Taiwan, killing at least two people and sinking a cargo ship, with its nine crew members missing.

The typhoon made landfall on the northeastern coast of Taiwan at about midnight (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday, the country’s Central Weather Administration said, reporting gusts of up to 227kmph (141mph) before it barrelled towards Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province as of 12:15pm (04:15 GMT) on Thursday.

Taiwan’s fire department said on Thursday that a Tanzania-flagged cargo ship had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, forcing its nine crew members from Myanmar to abandon ship in life jackets.

Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, said the crew had contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship, but when rescuers finally reached the area, “visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong” to conduct a search.

“When the weather permits, we will immediately dispatch ships or helicopters to rescue, but at the moment it is not possible,” he said.

The authorities confirmed that Gaemi – the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years, with accumulated rainfall of 2,200mm (87 inches) since Tuesday – killed two people.

A motorist in Kaohsiung was crushed by a tree and a woman in eastern Hualien died after part of a building fell on her. More than 200 people were injured in the storm.

Several cities, including Taipei, announced a second day off on Thursday, with schools, government offices and the stock market closed, while hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled.

China flood alert

Chinese weather forecasters said Gaemi would pass through Fujian later on Thursday, with the province putting in place the second-highest flood alert level.

The Ministry of Water Resources warned on Wednesday that extremely heavy rains were expected to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.

In Fujian, government officials have relocated about 150,000 people, mainly from coastal fishing communities, state media reported.

As gale force winds picked up, officials in Zhoushan in Zhejiang suspended passenger waterway routes for up to three days.

Most flights were cancelled at airports in Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang, according to the VariFlight website.

Guangzhou rail officials suspended some trains that pass through typhoon-affected areas, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Meanwhile, northern China has been deluged by summer storms from a separate weather system.

Some areas in the capital, Beijing, experienced heavy rain and emergency plans were activated, with more than 25,000 people evacuated, according to the Beijing Daily newspaper. Some train services were also suspended at the Beijing West railway station.

Gaemi exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides.

Relentless rain killed at least 20 people over the past two weeks in the capital, Manila, and its surrounding provinces, the Philippine authorities said on Thursday.