Deadly typhoon Soudelor hits Taiwan

Typhoon Soudelor has battered Taiwan with fierce winds and rain, leaving six people dead and a trail of devastation as continues its path towards mainland China.After making landfall on the east coast in the early hours of Saturday morning, it swept across central Taiwan ripping up trees, snapping wind turbines and triggering a landslide in one remote village in the northern region of Taoyuan.

"Flash mudslides surged into the village. About 10 of the homes were half buried but people were evacuated last night and are in safe shelters," a spokesman for Taoyuan fire agency told the AFP news agency.

An eight-year-old girl and her mother became the first casualties when they were swept out to sea [Photo: AP]

At 9:30am local time on Saturday, more than two million households were without power and 80,000 more were without water, according to the Taiwanese national disaster reponse centre.

An eight-year-old girl and her mother became the first casualties when they were swept out to sea and died as the storm approached.

Soudelor has drawn comparisons to Typhoon Morakot in 2009, which blocked roads, levelled villages and killed dozens [Photo: Reuters]

Thousands have been evacuated across the country, with 1,300 people in temporary shelters across the island. All schools and workplaces were shut on Saturday.

Taiwan had several days to prepare for the typhoon, which has been tracked from space by international space agencies.

As of Saturday evening in Taiwan, the typhoon has weakened but heavy rainfall is expected to continue as it heads to mainland China [Photo: The Associated Press]

In an El Nino year such as this, tropical cyclones are born in this part of the Pacific. This is not the first time this year that the islands of the Marianas, Micronesia and the Marshalls have been damaged by adolescent typhoons.

The last time a major El Nino occurred, causing the formation of 12 super typhoons in the western Pacific, was 1997 – almost 20 years ago. Six have formed so far this year.

Typhoon Soudelor as shown heading towards Taiwan earlier this week [Photo: AFP]