Powerful typhoon Chan-hom hits China

Powerful typhoon Chan-hom has made landfall along the coast of China's eastern Zhejiang province.

Almost one million people have been evacuated from coastal areas in anticipation of the typhoon carrying wind speeds of 173km/h (107mph).

Chan-hom's path is expected to take it south of Shanghai later on Saturday.

The storm left five people dead in the Philippines earlier in the week. It also hit Taiwan and Japan, uprooting trees and injuring several people.

Chan-hom first hit Zhejiang province on an island near the city of Ningbo at around 16:40 (08:40 GMT), the National Meteorological Center said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

A China Central Television reporter was shown broadcasting knee-deep in a flooded street.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Shanghai says more than 400 flights have been cancelled there along with a number of public events, and the government has told people they should stay at home.

Dozens of flights were also cancelled in Zhoushan, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou.

Zhejiang province has called its entire fishing fleet back to port.

Some 100 train services were also cancelled.

Chinese television showed footage of coastal regions being battered by torrential rain as the typhoon neared.

Images from the region also showed flooded farmland.

Our correspondent says China is well used to dealing with such storms, although this is possibly the strongest July typhoon to hit Zhejiang since 1949.

The highest red-alert warning remains in force, despite the storm being downgraded in category from super to strong.