Typhoon Dolphin prompts over 1m evacuations in China

Typhoon Dolphin brought heavy rain to eastern China on Monday after weakening, with authorities saying more than a million people had been evacuated over the past few days and hundreds of flights were cancelled in Shanghai.

The storm lost power after making two landfalls along the coast of Zhejiang province on Sunday. China's National Meteorological Centre issued its least severe typhoon alert on Monday morning, but warned that parts of east and central China would continue to receive heavy rain for the next day.

State broadcaster CCTV said authorities issued their most severe flash flood alert for parts of eastern and southern Zhejiang on Monday.

Shanghai's two main passenger airports had 943 flights cancelled, the airport authority said. Public transport services, including many local trains, were suspended in the financial hub.

Some transport services began to resume elsewhere in eastern China. Ningbo international airport in Zhejiang restarted flight operations from midday Monday, or 0400 GMT, but warned that some journeys could still be delayed or cancelled because the typhoon's effects had not fully passed. Hangzhou, the provincial capital, resumed subway services on Monday morning after halting some train operations on Sunday.

Typhoon Dolphin had triggered a top-level alert over the weekend, prompting more than 1,000 flight cancellations and large-scale evacuations along the coast. CCTV said Wenzhou in Zhejiang relocated more than 900,000 people and opened more than 1,500 emergency shelters. Xinhua reported more than 150,000 people were evacuated in Fujian province and more than 200,000 in Shanghai.

Northern China is also forecast to face extreme weather this week. Five districts in Beijing issued red alerts for heavy rain on Monday, with some warning of landslide and flooding risks.