A powerful typhoon triggered landslides and flash floods in northern Taiwan yesterday, forcing thousands to flee their homes and financial markets in Taipei to close for a second day. Typhoon Aere, the fiercest storm to threaten Taipei this year, is feared to have killed 12 people in Japan and Taiwan this week. It is expected to hit China later yesterday zeroing in on the same area where Typhoon Rananim killed 164 people this month.

Authorities in eastern Zhejiang province have already evacuated nearly 250,000 people and called vessels back to port, China’s official Xinhua news agency said. The centre of the storm is likely to hit China’s Fujian province, with a population of about 35 million people, by 1200 GMT.

“We have issued the second highest level of the early warning alert red and I think it might cause damage like landslides in some areas”, said an official with the Fujian provincial meteorological station.

With gusts of up to 175 kph (108 mph), Aere is churning slowly west at 15 kph (9 mph), with its eye 90 km (56 miles) south of Matsu at 0800 GMT, the Central Weather Bureau said. Mansu island is just off the mainland Chinese coast.

“I have lived here for 26 years and never seen such terrible flooding”, said Wang Chao-chung, a 52-year-old computer salesman in the worst-hit area of Shangchung in Taipei county.