Rescue officials in Taiwan are searching for a cargo ship with nine crew members that has sunk off its southern coast.
The Tanzania-flagged freighter had been off the southern port city of Kaohsiung when Taiwan was struck by Typhoon Gaemi.
The storm, which made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast, has killed three people and injured hundreds more, officials said.
Before hitting Taiwan, Gaemi also brought relentless rains to large swathes of the Philippines, where eight people have died. Taiwan’s Coastguard Administration said the freighter had nine Myanmar nationals on board.
They added that three other foreign vessels had run aground during the typhoon.
The storm has forced officials to cancel parts of the island’s largest annual military drills, along with almost all domestic flights and more than 200 international flights.
Authorities warned on Wednesday that one of the biggest threats is the typhoon’s potential to cause landslides and flash flooding, especially on mountainsides destabilised by a large earthquake in April.
One of the three people killed in Taiwan was a motorist who was hit by a falling tree, authorities said. Another was crushed by an excavator when it overturned.
More than 8,000 people across the island have been temporarily relocated by local authorities, reports said.
Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan around midnight on Wednesday (16:00 GMT), on the northeastern coast close to Yilan county. On Wednesday, the government declared a typhoon day, suspending work and classes across the island except for the Kinmen islands.
On Thursday, schools and offices remained closed, while flights to and from Taiwan have also been cancelled.
The typhoon was originally expected to hit further north, but the mountains of northern Taiwan steered it slightly south towards the city of Hualien.
The typhoon is expected to weaken as it tracks over the mountainous terrain of Taiwan before re-emerging in the Taiwan Strait towards China.
A second landfall is expected in the Fujian province in southeastern China later on Thursday. The typhoon is expected to bring 300mm of rain to the region, which has already been experiencing flooding and persistent downpours.
Several rail operators in China have also suspended operations. (BBC News)
