Key points
- Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory issues second second-highest warning level of rainstorm
- China issues a tsunami warning for areas of eastern seaboard after magnitude 8.8 quake in Russia
- A 3 to 4-meter-high tsunami wave was observed in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula
ISLAMABAD: Shanghai has evacuated almost 283,000 people as Typhoon Co-May approaches the city on Wednesday, bringing lashing rains and high winds.
The Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory on Wednesday afternoon upgraded an earlier yellow rainstorm alert to orange, the second highest warning level, AFP reported.
Typhoon Co-May made landfall in eastern Zhejiang Province at about 4:30 am Wednesday (2030 GMT Tuesday), and is likely to make a second landfall in financial hub Shanghai in the evening.
Tsunami warning
China’s official broadcaster CCTV reported, “From last night to 10:00 am today, 282,800 people have been evacuated and relocated, basically achieving the goal of evacuating all those who needed to be evacuated”.
Separately, China has issued a tsunami warning for parts of the eastern seaboard after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. However, the warning was later lifted, CCTV reported.
According to Xinhua news, a 3- to 4-meter-high tsunami wave was observed in the Yelizovsky District of Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake, local authorities said.
Strongest since 1952
Earlier, the peninsula was hit by a magnitude 8.7 earthquake, the strongest since 1952, according to the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which reported the magnitude at 8.8, said the quake occurred at a depth of 19.3 km and was located 126 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 on the coast of Avacha Bay.
