- Super Typhoon injures 78 people in Vietnam.
- Authorities evacuate 50,000 people from coastal areas.
- High schools closed, flights suspended in country.
HAIPHONG: Asia’s most powerful storm this year made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, the meteorological agency said, killing at least four people after tearing through China’s island of Hainan and the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Yagi hit island districts of north Vietnam around 1pm, generating winds of up to 160kph (99mph) near its centre, having lost power from its peak of 234kph (145mph) in Hainan a day earlier.
The government said that as of 5pm four people had died and 78 had been injured by the typhoon. At least another dozen were missing at sea, according to state media.
Yagi had already claimed the lives of at least two people in Hainan and 16 people in the Philippines, the first country it hit, having formed east of the archipelago earlier in the week.
Vietnam’s coastal city of Haiphong, an industrial hub with a population of 2 million, was among the hardest hit by winds with speeds of up to 90kph.
As the typhoon approached, the city experienced widespread power outages on Saturday, authorities said, as did at least three other northern provinces.
In Haiphong, the strong winds smashed windows and waves were as much as three meters high when they hit the coast, according to a Reuters witness.
Metal roofing sheets were blown away, and pictures and footage from local media were shown. The government said thousands of trees had fallen and many houses were damaged across northern Vietnam.
Earlier in Hainan, with a population of more than 10 million, the storm felled trees, flooded roads and cut power to more than 800,000 homes.
Airports, schools closed
Vietnam evacuated more than 50,000 people from coastal towns and deployed 450,000 military personnel, the government said.
It also suspended operations for several hours at four airports on Saturday, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai, the busiest in the north, which cancelled more than 300 flights.
High schools were also closed in 12 northern provinces, including in the capital Hanoi, which has a population of 8.5 million.
Authorities in the capital suspended public transport on buses and its two elevated metro lines on Saturday afternoon, state media reported. The meteorological agency has warned of risks of heavy flooding in the city centre.
