Typhoon Topples Hotel In Taiwan

Nearly one million people in China have been forced to flee their homes because of a vicious typhoon that made landfall on the country's eastern coast on Sunday.

Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, has also triggered the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years, flattening villages and toppling the six-storey Hotel Chin Shuai.

Nobody was hurt in that incident, but the storm has killed at least three people in its path and, earlier, some 21 in the Philippines. Dozens more Chinese and Taiwanese are missing and feared dead.

The typhoon lashed the country with winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour.

It was expected to weaken as it travelled north but still bring strong winds and heavy rains to Shanghai.

The Hotel Chin Shuai lies collapsed in floodwater during typhoon Morakot in Chihpen, in southeastern Taiwan's Taitung county on August 9, 2009. CityNews