Red alert: Shanghai cancels 60% of flights as Typhoon Dolphin closes in

Typhoon Dolphin is expected to make landfall along the coast of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces between Sunday night and Monday morning, prompting Shanghai to cancel nearly 60 per cent of flights to and from the metropolis on Sunday.China’s National Meteorological Centre issued a red alert for Typhoon Dolphin at 10am on Sunday, when the centre of the storm was over the southern China-sea" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="19685" data-entity-type="location">East China Sea, about 215km (134 miles) east of Wenzhou, Zhejiang.The typhoon is projected to move towards the west and northwest, gradually weakening after making landfall.In the coming days, rain and wind will intensify across eastern China. Both Zhejiang and Shanghai are located within the “dangerous semicircle” of the typhoon, where wind and rain are expected to be at their strongest, according to Weather China on Sunday.In response, the Shanghai-airport-group" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="181436" data-entity-type="organization">Shanghai Airport Group announced late on Saturday that nearly 60 per cent of inbound and outbound flights on Sunday would be cancelled. A total of 1,384 flights were grounded, including 871 at Pudong International Airport and 513 at Hongqiao International Airport.Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in Zhejiang said airlines had cancelled 270 flights on Sunday, adding that the typhoon was expected to affect operations starting in the afternoon.Train services in the region have also been adjusted, with temporary suspensions placed on rail sections across Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Anhui and Jiangxi from Sunday to Monday.