China’s east coast is battered by a fierce typhoon, which killed at least two persons, destroyed hundreds of houses and forced more than two million people to leave their homes, officials said Wednesday

Typhoon Wipha struck the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang with winds of 45 metres per second early Wednesday, specialists saying the storm system is beginning to lose its destructive power.

But the “super typhoon” had enough strength to destroy more than 660 houses in Cangnan county, topple trees and power poles and leave about 1,867 settlements without electricity, local authorities said.

A man was killed and several other persons were injured when a building collapsed in a small village near Wenzhou, a city in the southeastern region of Zhejiang province. On Tuesday, a man was electrocuted and died when he stepped into water covering a lighting box in Shanghai.

Authorities said Wipha was downgraded into a tropical storm, with wind speeds dropping to 83 kilometres per hour at the storm’s centre.

The women's football World Cup was also disrupted by this storm system, several group matches scheduled to be played in Shanghai and Hangzhou being postponed by organizers.

The south-eastern province of Fujian was also battered by strong winds and heavy rain, experts saying Shanghai will be seriously affected by the storm Wednesday evening.

Meteorologists said Wipha is continuing its march towards the north, pummeling coastal areas until it will reach North Korea and a region of north-eastern China on Thursday.

Both Shanghai’s airports were temporarily closed and all flights were diverted to other airports. Work at all construction sites was halted and parks located on river banks were closed.

In Zhejiang, government troops began evacuating people living in high-risk areas and reinforced dams. About 162 millimetres of rain fell in several cities in the eastern province over the past 24 hours, water level reaching dangerous levels in numerous rivers, reports from the region informed.

Authorities said Wipha represents the “most severe test in decades” for eastern China, warning people in urban areas to brace themselves for massive floods, landslides and strong winds.

Two persons died, several were injured and two others are still missing after Wipha swept northern Japan and Taiwan.