Qa'dah 15, 1431 H/Oct 23, 2010, SPA -- Typhoon Megi hit China's south-east coast Saturday afternoon, affecting flights in the area and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people after killing at least 39 people in the Philippines and Taiwan. The typhoon made landfall at Zhangzhou in Fujian province at 12:55 pm (0455 GMT) with winds up to 140 kilometres per hour, dpa quoted the Central Meteorological Observatory as saying. The strength of the typhoon was decreasing as it headed north-west, travelling at 10 to 15 kph, the bureau said. More than 270,000 people had been evacuated by early Saturday and more people would be relocated, the official Xinhua news agency reported. As of Saturday morning, 79 flights into Xiamen on Fujian's south-east coast had been cancelled, the report said. Road transport was also affected. Earlier, fishing boats had been called in after forecasters warned that Megi could be the strongest typhoon to hit southern China in 20 years and could bring the highest tides in 200 years to some coastal areas. On Friday, Hong Kong was spared the full force of the storm after Megi passed it by. At least 26 people died in the storm this week in the Philippines while at least 13 people were killed in Taiwan after the typhoon caused landslides and heavy rain there. More were missing. Megi slammed into the Philippines Monday at its peak strength, packing maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 260 kph. It had weakened to 130 kph by the time it reached Taiwan.
