100,000 evacuated as typhoon makes landfall in China

Beijing June 13 (IANS) Over 100 000 people were evacuated to safety on Tuesday morning after typhoon Merbok made landfall in China s Shenzhen city.

From Monday morning to early Tuesday the city reported an average precipitation of 81 mm with 219 mm reported in the area where the typhoon made landfall on Monday night according to disaster management officials.

A total of 2 198 fishing boats returned to their respective ports. In addition 232 flights were also cancelled in Shenzhen reports Xinhua news agency.

However there were no reports of casualties or damage so far.

Merbok is the second typhoon to hit China this year.

It reduced to a tropical storm after making landfall packing maximum wind of 23 metres per second at its eye.

--IANS
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