Typhoon Gaemi displaces nearly 300,000 people in Eastern China

Typhoon Gaemi wreaks havoc in China, Taiwan, and the Philippines, causing evacuations, flooding, landslides, and a fuel spill.

Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on July 26, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan.

Gaemi was the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years when it made landfall on July 25, flooding parts of the island's second-biggest city.

It 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 July 25, with authorities racing to contain a fuel spill.

It had weakened by the time it made landfall in China's eastern Fujian province shortly before 8:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) on July 25, state media said.

China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south coming as much of the north has sweltered under successive heatwaves.

The country is by far the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.