Tokyo/Beijing - Officials in eastern China evacuated 510,000 people by Tuesday after a powerful typhoon left at least two people dead and two missing in northern Japan, and disrupted land and air traffic in Taiwan. An 87-year-old Japanese man died of an illness at an evacuation shelter in Kita-Akita early Tuesday while a woman and a 64-year-old newspaper delivery man were swept away by overflowing rivers, Japanese media reports said.
The casualties were reported since Typhoon Wipha began to bring heavy rain and strong winds to Japan on Monday.
Local authorities have advised more than 30,000 residents to evacuate because of flooding and rivers that have breached their banks.
Wipha was heading north-west from the East China Sea toward China Tuesday at about 20 kilometres per hour, packing winds of up to 252 kilometres per hour near its centre, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Train service was suspended in northern Japan, and nearly 50 flights were cancelled in the southern prefecture of Okinawa.
In China, at least 510,000 people were evacuated around Shanghai and in the neighbouring provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, state media said
As wind and rain brought by the typhoon began to batter eastern China, several cities in Zhejiang recorded 162 millimetres of rain in 21 hours by Tuesday afternoon.
In Taiwan, the typhoon disrupted land and air traffic and left at least one person dead and one injured.
At an elevated bridge construction site in Wuku near Taipei, a 20- metre scaffolding collapsed Tuesday morning, causing two Thai workers to fall to the ground. One died and the other was injured.
The Taipei domestic airport was shut while the Taipei international airport remained open, though two dozen international flights were cancelled or delayed.
Wipha brought strong wind and heavy rain to east and north-eastern Taiwan, triggering rockfalls and the evacuations of three villages in Hsinchu County in western Taiwan.
Several cities and countries in eastern and northern Taiwan declared Tuesday a holiday so that people could stay home. The Taipei stock market was closed on Tuesday.
Wipha was expected to make landfall on China's Fujian coast, some 300 kilometres north-west of Taiwan, in the early hours of Wednesday.
"The impact and damage from Wipha could be extraordinary, and gales and waves caused by it could be the strongest this year," said an unnamed official from the Zhejiang Maritime Safety Administration.
Zhejiang vice-governor Mao Linsheng said the typhoon was expected to cause "great losses" if it hit the province full-on.
Mao ordered local officials to be vigilant against damage from strong winds, heavy rain, landslides and especially flooding in urban areas, the official China Daily newspaper said.
The province also evacuated people from vulnerable areas, suspended ferry services to outlying islands and recalled 30,000 fishing vessels by Monday afternoon, the newspaper said.
