Typhoon Nepartak

    At least six people have died and eight remain missing after Typhoon Nepartak made landfall and swept through East China’s Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Sunday.

    As of 5 p.m. on Sunday, 438,000 residents in nine cities in Fujian Province had been temporarily relocated as the typhoon destroyed more than 1,000 houses, according to a written statement issued by the provincial flood control office. According to the local weather bureau, the first typhoon of the season landed at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday in Shishi City, packing winds of up to 100 km per hour.

    Trash dumping

    Police in East China’s Jiangsu Province have detained 12 people accused of dumping a massive amount of garbage on the bank of a lake in Suzhou City.

    The suspects are accused of fly-tipping* garbage since June 15 on a bank of Taihu Lake near a drug rehabilitation clinic within the Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone, said a spokesperson with the city’s public security bureau on Wednesday. An estimated over 20,000 tons of waste consisting mostly of construction materials was found across 2,400 square meters of the bank. Under police interrogation, the suspects admitted to having dumped about 12,000 tons.

    Yangtze flooding

    An overnight storm following days of rain has stopped traffic, cut power and water supplies and trapped people in their homes in many parts of Wuhan, a metropolis on the Yangtze River.

    The downpour caused severe waterlogging* as local rivers, lakes and reservoirs have swollen, leading to the closure of a tunnel across the Yangtze as well as some subway stations and underground passages, according to local traffic authorities on July 6.

    Taiwan nursing home fire

    A fire that tore through a nursing home killed six people and injured another 28 in Taiwan on July 6.

    Television footage* showed elderly people being evacuated from the facility, some in clothes blackened by smoke. Bodies were found in the private nursing facility on the eighth floor of a 10-story building in Xindian District, New Taipei City, while rescuers rushed 31 people to the hospital.

    (SD-Agencies)