Taiwan’s first typhoon of the year has left 81 people injured and coastal towns flooded as the island braces for a second tropical storm.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau says Typhoon Nesat made landfall on the northeast coast of Taiwan Saturday evening with maximum sustained winds of 137 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 173 kph.

Emergency response authorities say the howling winds hit people with flying glass and toppled motor scooters and even utility trucks.

More than 10,000 people, largely from Taiwan’s south, were evacuated before the typhoon and 1,612 are still in shelters today.

Nesat caused the cancellation of 145 international flights and cut power to nearly half a million households.

A second tropical storm is due to reach Sunday night.

A police officer controls the traffic in front of a tree uprooted by strong winds caused by Typhoon Nesat in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, July 30, 2017. | Photo Credit: AP

China evacuates thousands

More than 3,100 people have been evacuated as eastern China’s Fujian Province braces for the impact of Typhoon Nesat.

Fujian meteorological station said Nesat, which make landfall in Taiwan Saturday evening, might land in the form of a typhoon or strong tropical storm in Fujian early on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

By Saturday noon, over 3,100 women, children and elderly had taken to the shore from fish farms, the provincial flood control headquarters said.

In Songfeng Village administered by Putian City, Wu Jinxi, head of the village committee, helped evacuate residents.

On Saturday, Nesat, the ninth typhoon this year, was travelling at a speed of 20 kilometres per hour in a northwest direction, packing gusts of wind up to 144 kilometres an hour.

The station said the tenth typhoon had been also formed and was expected to land late on Sunday or early Monday in central to northern Fujian.