By DPA
Taipei/Shanghai : Powerful Typhoon Krosa pounded Taiwan Saturday with strong winds and torrential rain, killing at least four people and injuring 40 others as it swerved off on its way to China.
Packing sustained winds of 198 km per hour and moving north-west at a speed of just 11 kmph, Krosa blew off the roofs of at least five houses, knocked down several dozen huge signboards and uprooted hundreds of trees and lamp poles across the island, police and rescue centre officials said.
Strong winds blew an unidentified Indonesian sailor into the sea from a freighter that was taking shelter in northern Taiwan’s Keelung port. He is believed to have died.
A truck driver was killed and his passenger injured when a container truck overturned on the Taipei-Ilan highway amid strong winds, police said.
Eight people were buried when their house in the Taipei suburb of Yangming Mountain collapsed in the strong winds, officials said.
“We have rescued six people, whose conditions are fine,” a police spokesman said by phone. He said rescuers pulled out a 30-year-old man, identified as Chiu Wen-hung four hours later.
“But the man died on the way to hospital,” he said, adding rescuers had yet to find Chiu’s 60-year-old father, who was still buried by the debris.
Another senior citizen was found dead after being blown to the ground from the balcony of his apartment in Hsinchu outside Taipei, local TV reported.
More than 40 people have been injured, some critically, in various parts of Taiwan by falling debris, trees, signboards and other objects, police said.
A huge scaffolding collapsed in the northern city of Hsinchu, crushing a row of cars parked by the pavement.
Two children from one family were injured when part of the scaffolding landed on their car.
A mudslide buried a house in Hsinchu county, forcing a nearby family in the middle of a funeral service to stop the ceremony and escape, taking the deceased with them, TVBS reported.
Waist-high flooding was reported in low-lying areas all over Taiwan, including two communities in Taipei.
Authorities issued 820 alerts concerning rockslides and mudslides across the island and evacuated at least 500 families.
Krosa, which weakened somewhat by the evening, had also cut power to more than 700,000 households in Taiwan and forced train and domestic airlines to suspend service.
The typhoon was forecast to move away from Taiwan to China before Sunday evening. Warnings remained for torrential rain with precipitation of up to 1,000 mm in the next few days.
China meanwhile was preparing for the arrival of the typhoon, moving 138,000 people in the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to safety, and around 27,000 fishing boats were also called to harbour.
The Chinese government also issued flood warnings, adding that special attention was being paid to the many tourists visiting China’s coastal areas during the Chinese National Day holiday that started Oct 1 and runs for a week.
Around 2,500 tourists were evacuated from the island of Nanji near Wenzhou city in Zhejiang province.
According to forecasts, the typhoon was due to hit China’s east coast between Sunday night and Monday noon.
Krosa, meaning crane in the Khmer language, is the 15th storm of the season.