Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanghai step up measures amid Typhoon Bavi threat

Violent winds and heavy rains are battering eastern China after Typhoon Bavi, the ninth of the year, slams into the coastline.

Authorities in Zhejiang Province have evacuated more than 2 million residents as Bavi made the landfall in Yuhuan City Saturday night. Neighbouring Fujian Province and Shanghai have also ramped up safety measures.

The powerful storm, with the maximum wind force at its centre reaching 40 metres per second when landing, churned ashore Zhejiang's Yuhuan, a county-level city administered by the city of Taizhou, at around 11:20pm Saturday, before making a second landfall in Yueqing City under Wenzhou within less than one hour.

The province has elevated the typhoon emergency response to the highest level.

Firefighters in Ningbo are seen placing sandbags to combat patrolled streets while rescue teams in inland Lishui City are working to clear roads in rural areas, staying on high alert for landslides.

Two major train stations in provincial capital Hangzhou suspended all services and 327 flights have been cancelled at Xiaoshan International Airport.

In Fujian's Fuding, a coastal city that borders Zhejiang, sea waves whipped up by gusts exceed 10 metres in height and are seen crashing on reefs before the typhoon's arrival.

As the seawater levels rise dangerously close to the pier's surface, authorities have temporarily shut down the city's Yujing pier, a hub for island tourism, while all ferry services are suspended.

The construction work of the Ningde Nuclear Power Project Phase II site is halted.

Officials are organising continuous patrols along a 726-metre sea wall which serves as a primary defense line for the Xiamen She Ethnic Township sitting at a river mouth.

The torrential rain have downed trees, damaged power lines and caused waterlogging on roads across Fuding. Thousands of local officials and emergency crews worked overnight to clear debris.

Meanwhile, two of the international airports in the densely-populated Shanghai are expected to cancel around 653 inbound and outbound flights due to Bavi.

More than 50 major tourist attractions in the city are temporarily closed, and 34,000 residents from high-risk areas have been relocated to safer ground, media reported.