In eight years the strongest typhoon hit Taiwan which killed three people and flooded parts of the island’s second-biggest city on Thursday, while rescuers searched for nine sailors missing after their cargo ship sank in the storm.
Typhoon Gaemi transformed streets in southern Kaohsiung city into rivers, with some households flooded by rainwater. Schools and offices were closed in many cities for a second day, with the stock market suspended and thousands of people evacuated.
Gaemi also exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides that killed 20 people. A tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of oil sank off Manila on Thursday, with authorities racing to contain a spill. The storm had weakened by Thursday morning and the centre has moved out to sea at around 4:20 am (2020 GMT).
Taiwan’s fire agency said it received a report early Thursday that a cargo ship had sunk off the island’s southwestern coast, forcing its nine Myanmar crew members to abandon ship in life jackets.
‘They fell into the sea and were floating there’, said Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, adding that rescuers contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship to assist them. Hsiao did not specify when the Tanzania-flagged ship sank but said the rescue vessel arrived in the area at 8:35 am (0035 GMT).
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