“Super” typhoon set to hit coast of China

10 Aug, 2006 06:55 / Updated 18 years ago

Nearly half a million people have been moved from China's south east coast, as a powerful typhoon gathers pace and heads for the mainland.

Typhoon Saomai has already brought torrential rain to Taiwan and is expected to make landfall just south of the city of Wenzhou. Saomai has been rated as a category five “super” typhoon and has sparked a major evacuation operation. Much of southern China has been repeatedly battered by tropical storms this year and hundreds of people have been killed in landslides and floods.