TAIPEI: Typhoon Matmo slammed into Taiwan yesterday with heavy rains and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools, with at least one person killed and some damage reported.
Typhoon Matmo, a category two on Tropical Storm Risk’s scale of one to five, packed gusts of 155 kph and made landfall early yesterday, the central weather bureau said.
A man in northern Taiwan died after falling into a pool on his farm. News reports said a tourist was missing after taking pictures on a shore.
The storm’s powerful winds tore off roofs and uprooted trees, including one in Taipei that crashed into a taxi, injuring its driver and a passenger.
Emergency officials said three other people were injured in the capital and four elsewhere, either by falling trees or flying debris, bringing the total hurt to nine.
Typhoon Matmo had slightly weakened before it crossed the island to enter the Taiwan Strait and head for China’s south-eastern Fujian province yesterday.
It was located around 180 kilometres south of Matsu, a Taiwan-controlled island off Fujian, at 0300 GMT, according to the Central Weather Bureau.
Typhoon Matmo dumped up to 0.6 metres of water in the east and the mountainous areas in the southeast, the bureau said.
Taiwan’s military had distributed sandbags in anticipation of flooding.
Matmo was expected to head north towards China later in the day.
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