Powerful typhoon Doksuri is heading towards China after laying waste to Taiwan and the northern Philippines with heavy rain and winds.
Doksuri is expected to make landfall in China on Friday morning, prompting authorities to shut schools and offices in advance.
It comes after the extreme gusts caused a ferry to capsize in waters near the capital of Manila, killing at least 25 people.
Doksuri weakened during its transit over the Phillippines but will bring sustained winds of 155kph and gusts of up to 190kph to the Chinese mainland, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.
Fifteen provinces and city-level administrative units across China have already been affected by “severe” weather including thunderstorms and gales, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Authorities in the coastal Chinese city of Shantou, which lies between Guangdong and Fujian provinces, announced that schools and offices would be shut on Friday. Three coastal cities in Fujian have already urged locals to stay inside.
Beijing has already launched emergency flood control operations in several cities in the country’s southwest after torrential rain in the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.
The typhoon swept through northern Philippine provinces with ferocious wind and rain on Wednesday, leaving at least nine people dead, including four members of a family whose house was buried in a landslide, and displacing thousands of villagers.
Authorities expect the death toll to rise as more provincial reports come in.
At least 25 people were confirmed dead after the MBCA Princess Aya sank just 45 metres from the shore of Binangonan town in Rizal province, east of Manila. Passengers alarmed by strong winds are said to have rushed to one side of the boat, causing it to overturn.
“They went to the port side of the motor banca, causing the boat to tilt and capsize,” coastguard spokesman Rear Admiral Armand Balilo told a Manila radio station.
All domestic flights and ferries in Taiwan were suspended as a result of the storm on Thursday, while more than 100 international flights were cancelled and delayed.
The typhoon caused power outages and 49,000 households in southern Taiwan, though electricity has since been restored.
Strong winds also forced authorities in the port city of Kaohsiung to evacuate 300 residents living in a mountainous region, according to the Central News Agency.
The Taiwan Strait is one of the world’s busiest routes for international trade and the typhoon has caused major disruptions to shipping and flights.
The China Meteorological Administration forecast that Doksuri would be weaker than 2016's Typhoon Meranti, the strongest storm to hit China's coast since 1949 which killed at least 11 people.
Countries across the world are currently experiencing an extended bout of extreme weather. Wildfires on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu have forced the evacuation of thousands of tourists.
On July 16, China reported a record temperature of 52.2C in the Sanbao township in the country’s north-western Xinjiang region.
And in South Korea, torrential rains left 40 people dead earlier this month as river levees collapsed causing flash floods.
