By Xinhua,
Fuzhou (China) : Typhoon Morakot slammed into the eastern coastal region of China, killing one and forcing about a million people to move to safer places, authorities said Sunday.
The season’s first major typhoon made landfall in the coastal areas of Fujian province in the afternoon, the provincial meteorological bureau said.
The typhoon also caused havoc and claimed one life in neighbouring Zhejiang province.
In Wenzhou city in Zhejiang, several houses were damaged as the typhoon brought 700 mm rainfall Sunday morning.
According to officials, five people, including a four-year-old boy, were buried in the debris of one of the houses. Though they were rescued, the boy later succumbed to his injuries.
Earlier, authorities moved about a million people to safe places in the two coastal provinces ahead of the impending arrival of the Morakot, the eighth such tropical storm to hit China this year.
Over 490,000 residents of Zhejiang and more than 505,000 from Fujian have been evacuated to safer areas, authorities said.
Morakot, listed as a category 1 storm on a 1-4 scale by the Tropical Storm Risk forecasting service, had killed one person and left 10 injured and four people were missing in Taiwan before heading towards China.