Typhoon Dujuan kills 3 in Taiwan

At least three people have been killed and more than 340 injured in Taiwan as a result of Super Typhoon Dujuan, which swept across the island before striking China's mainland, authorities said yesterday.

Dujuan made landfall in the coastal city of Putian in southeast China's Fujian Province yesterday morning, but there were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.

The National Meteorological Center said it was packing maximum wind speeds of 119 kilometers per hour near its center, but later weakened to a tropical storm.

Frontier officers in Putian, southeast China’s Fujian Province, deal with a motorcycle that was blown over by Super Typhoon Dujuan, after it made landfall in the coastal city. In Taiwan yesterday, at least three people were killed and almost 350 were hurt by the typhoon as winds swept across the island before moving on to China's mainland. — Xinhua

Many of the 346 people hurt in Taiwan were hit by flying debris or involved in traffic accidents, the island's Emergency Operation Center said.

Severe winds uprooted trees and smashed windows while heavy rains triggered multiple landslides. More than 12,000 people were evacuated and almost 3,000 are in temporary shelters, authorities said.

About 175,000 homes are still without electricity as the storm left a trail of destruction in the north of the island.

One of the dead was a 54-year-old man swept into the air by winds at a construction site. A 70-year-old man died after a fall and a 41-year-old woman was killed in a car accident, the emergency center said.

Taiwan's aboriginal mountain communities are particularly at risk during typhoons, as they are prone to flooding and mudslides.

Landslides blocked the roads into the hot spring town of Wulai, in mountains just outside Taipei. It was the latest hit for the community, which was severely damaged by flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Soudelor in August.

At least eight people in Taiwan and 21 on China's mainland were killed by Soudelor.

Some residents of Wulai had only recently returned to their homes, and many shops and hotels were still rebuilding even as the latest typhoon struck.

"The roads are blocked but residents aren't in any immediate danger," a spokesman for the New Taipei City fire department told AFP.

Dujuan was categorized as a "super typhoon" by regional forecasters, taking residents by surprise as it accelerated before making landfall late on Monday in the eastern Taiwan county of Yilan.

It was downgraded to a "moderate typhoon" by the local weather bureau as it crossed the island.

"It's expected the typhoon will continue to weaken and its radius to keep shrinking," the weather bureau said yesterday.

Schools and offices in Taiwan remained closed yesterday and the stock market was also suspended. At the peak of the storm, 2 million homes were left without electricity.

Towering waves crashed through windows at a seaside hotel in eastern Yilan, while fierce winds damaged Taipei's famous 101 skyscraper.

In the city of Hsinchu, a crane fell from 20 stories onto cars below but no one was injured, local reports said.

Performances by American rock band Bon Jovi, due to take place in Taipei on Monday and yesterday, were canceled.

The National Meteorological Center issued a red alert ahead of the storm's arrival on the mainland, Xinhua news agency reported, adding that more than 320,000 people in east China's Zhejiang Province had been evacuated.

Tens of thousands of boats were called back to shore in Zhejiang and neighboring Fujian while all flights at the three airports in Fujian were canceled yesterday, state media said.