Super-typhoon Gaemi kills 16 people and injures hundreds in Taiwan and Philippines

A typhoon killed three people and injured more than 220 others in Taiwan on Wednesday as it approached the island, gathering strength.

In the nearby Philippines , at least 13 people died, while others trapped by rising floodwaters called for help.

Typhoon Gaemi , which was expected to make landfall over Taiwan during Wednesday evening, escalated into a super-typhoon – an intensely powerful tropical cyclone distinguished by sustained wind speeds of at least 150mph.

Gaemi, the first typhoon of the season, has caused high winds and heavy rain across southeast Asia , forcing schools, offices and tourist sites to close.

Travellers rushed to board overseas flights from Taiwan after airlines said many flights to Japan, China and other regional destinations would be cancelled on Thursday.

Shelters were opened in vulnerable areas, particularly in Taiwan’s mountainous centre and east that are prone to landslides and flooding, as the typhoon threatened to wreck homes.

Streets were inundated in numerous towns and cities, and high winds knocked down pedestrians and motor scooter riders.

The storm prompted the closure of financial markets and the cancellation of air force drills off Taiwan’s east coast.

Fishing boats were recalled to port amid turbulent seas. “This could be the biggest typhoon in recent years,” a fishing boat captain said.

Wind speeds at the typhoon’s centre were approaching their second-highest ever recorded for the Western Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon.

Taipei ’s mayor urged citizens to stay at home.

The three deaths included a driver pinned under his excavator after it overturned on a slippery road, a woman hit by a falling tree and a woman crushed in a car by a collapsing wall, the country’s Central News Agency said.

Gaemi, called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall there but exacerbated monsoon rains, setting off at least a dozen landslides and floods over five days, displacing 600,000 people, the country’s disaster risk mitigation agency said.

The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out on Wednesday morning after a landslide buried a rural shanty in the mountainside town of Agoncillo.

The Philippine coastguard said it was overwhelmed with pleas from residents in the capital Manila to be rescued. Some people waited on rooftops.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered authorities to speed up efforts to deliver food and other aid to isolated villages.

“People there may not have eaten for days,” Mr Marcos said in a televised emergency meeting.

In the densely populated region around Manila, school classes were suspended after rain flooded many areas.

In Marikina city in the eastern fringes of the Manila region, strong currents on a major river swept away a steel cargo container, refrigerators and tree trunks, according to journalists there.

The storm’s effects were expected to continue into Friday as it moved in a northwestern direction towards mainland China.

In Fujian province on China’s east coast, ferry routes were suspended on Wednesday and all train services will be halted on Thursday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

Scientists say climate change is making typhoons – tropical cyclones that gain energy by feeding on ocean heat – more intense, capable of reaching greater wind speeds and dumping more rain.