BEIJING, AUg 10 (NNN-AGENCIES ) – At least 18 people were killed and 14 missing in a landslide triggered by a powerful typhoon that made landfall on China’s south-eastern coast on Saturday, state media reported.
Typhoon Lekima brought with it heavy rain, large waves and strong winds, prompting China’s weather bureau to originally issue a red alert – its highest warning – and forcing the evacuation of 1 million people.
According to the Xinhua news agency, Yongjia county in Zhejiang province experienced a landslide due to the rainfall, which created an artificial reservoir. When this burst, the masses of water flooded the village of Yantan.
State media showed images of flooded roads as well as fallen power pylons and trees.
Lekima was weakening as it slowly moved northward, Xinhua said, bringing heavy rain to the cities of Hangzhou and Shanghai.
In Shanghai many tourist attractions, museums and parks were shuttered, state news agency Xinhua reported. For the first time since opening in 2016, Disneyland Shanghai was forced to close.
Many high-speed rail services and hundreds of flights were cancelled.
Typhoon Lekima has already battered southern Japan and Taiwan, where one person was killed on Friday and thousands of homes lost power.
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