Officials say a powerful typhoon that swept into southeastern China after hitting Taiwan has left a total of two dead and dozens injured.
Chinese state media reported one death and one person missing from Meranti, which shattered windows on tall buildings and disrupted water supplies.
Taiwan's Central News Agency said one person was killed and 44 were injured on the island by the storm. It said Meranti knocked out power in almost 1 million homes and water in more than 700,000.
Typhoon Meranti's violent winds also destroyed three historic bridges, including an 800-year-old wooden bridge from the Song dynasty in Fujian's Yongchun county.
Dozens of flights and train services were cancelled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people. About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity. Large sections of Xiamen also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows in tall buildings shattered, sending glass showering onto the ground below, state news agency Xinhua said. The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.
Chinese meteorologists downgraded Meranti from a super typhoon to a tropical storm on Thursday afternoon and said they expect it to fade further as it moves north.
Reuters
