Super typhoon Yagi has killed at least two people and injured 92 others on the southern Chinese tourist island of Hainan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

Yagi is accompanied by heavy rains and wind gusts of 234 kilometers per hour near its center, which uprooted countless trees, flooded roads and forced 460,000 people to flee their homes in the island province, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Power has been cut to more than 800,000 homes.

Hainan is home to more than 10 million people.

Super typhoon Yagi is the strongest to hit the Pacific basin this year and at 04:00 this morning Greek time it was heading towards the northern coast of Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin with lightning, rain and strong winds.

Yagi formed on September 1 over the sea east of the Philippine archipelago. It hit Luzon, the Philippines’ most populous island, as a tropical storm, killing at least 16 people and injuring 13.

The tropical storm strengthened dramatically later in the week to become the world’s strongest tropical cyclone of 2024, following Category 5 Hurricane Beryl in the Atlantic.