Rumbia blusters through Shanghai

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and bridges across some rivers were closed as Typhoon Rumbia, the fourth to hit the Yangtze River Delta region in a month, made landfall in the early hours of Friday along Shanghai's coast.

By 3 pm on Friday, Rumbia was downgraded to a tropical storm and was located over Dangtu county, Anhui province, with winds of 83 kilometers per hour and moving westward at a speed of 23 km/h, said the Beijing-based National Meteorological Center.

No casualties had been reported in the Shanghai area by Friday afternoon. Vehicles were required to slow down on some highways and all parks remained closed through Friday. By mid-afternoon, a typhoon alert was replaced by a yellow gale alert, the second of a four-tier system.