Chinese City Suspends Schools, Flights As Typhoon Approaches

The storm had been downgraded from super typhoon to a strong typhoon on Sunday evening and was expected to gradually weaken, Shanghai city authorities said.

Authorities in Shanghai and neighbouring coastal regions cancelled flights, and suspended schools, subways and trains as Typhoon Chanthu approached mainland China after drenching Taiwan. The storm, with winds of more than 170 kilometres per hour near its eye, had been downgraded from a super typhoon to a strong typhoon on Sunday evening and was expected to gradually weaken, Shanghai city authorities said in a post on their official WeChat account. But it was still expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to coastal regions. The province of Zhejiang near Shanghai raised its emergency response to the highest level on Sunday, closing schools and suspending flights and rail services in some cities, the official Xinhua news service reported.