Typhoon Haitang batters Taiwan

Typhoon Haitang pounded communities along Taiwan’s north-east coast today as schools, government offices and financial markets were ordered to close.

Torrential rains whipped through the capital Taipei at daybreak while powerful winds uprooted trees and dislodged billboards in the northern part of the island. The storm’s full impact is due in the late afternoon local time, when its eye is forecast to pass a point just south of Taipei.