Super typhoon Yagi kills 4 in Vietnam after casualties in China, Philippines

• Super typhoon injures 78 people in Vietnam.
• Authorities are evacuating 50,000 people from coastal areas.
• High schools are closed, flights are suspended in the country.
  

HAIPHONG: Asia’s strongest storm this year made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, the weather service said, killing at least four people after battering the Chinese island of Hainan and the Philippines.

Super typhoon Yagi hit the island districts of northern Vietnam around 1 p.m., packing winds of up to 160 km/h (99 mph) near its center, having weakened from a peak of 234 km/h (145 mph) in Hainan a day earlier.

The government said that by 5pm four people had died and 78 had been injured by the typhoon. At least another dozen are missing at sea, according to state media.

Yagi had already killed at least two people in Hainan and 16 people in the Philippines, the first country to 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 of up to 90km/h.

As the typhoon approached, the city experienced widespread power outages on Saturday, authorities said, as did at least three other northern provinces.

In Haiphong, strong winds broke windows and waves were up to three meters high when they hit the shore, according to Reuters witness.

Sheet metal roofs were blown off and photos and footage were shown by local media. The government said thousands of trees fell and many houses were damaged in northern Vietnam.

Earlier in Hainan, with a population of more than 10 million, the storm felled trees, flooded roads and knocked out power to more than 800,000 homes.

Closed schools, airports

Vietnam evacuated more than 50,000 people from coastal cities and deployed 450,000 troops, 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 canceled more than 300 flights.

High schools were also closed in 12 northern provinces, including the capital Hanoi, which has a population of 8.5 million.

Authorities in the capital suspended public transport on buses and two elevated metro lines on Saturday afternoon, state media reported. The Met Office has warned of the risk of heavy flooding in the city centre.