Typhoon Rammasun has pummeled Shanghai with gale-force winds and heavy rain since Thursday night, killing at least five people and disrupting flight schedules.

Water levels in Nanjing, in the lower reach of the flood-prone Yangtze River, reached a dangerous level Friday for the first time this year.

The water mark at the Yangtze River in the city reached 8.67 meters; the danger level starts at 8.5 meters.

Much of the rain is associated with Typhoon Rammasun, which headed north from Shanghai to Jiangsu and Shandong provinces.

The typhoon killed five people and injured 44 early Friday in Shanghai.

The casualties were migrant workers sleeping in a shed that collapsed on the construction site of an apartment building in Pudong.

Rammasum ("Thunder of God in Thai'') did little damage elsewhere in the city, and people's lives went on as usual.

Since July 4, the landing and take-off of 105 flights in the two airports were delayed; 44 were cancelled.

Passenger ships were also cancelled, and 100 boats were called back to the harbor to take shelter.

In Nanhui District, the wind broke the sheds of 333 hectares (822 acres) of fruits and vegetables, fell 165 trees along the streets, cut more than 50 wire lines and threw part of the area in darkness.

In Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Thursday, heavy rain hit 20 counties and caused flooding.

Three people were reported dead and two missing in the flood. Nine miners in the gallery of a private coal mine in Zichang County were also trapped because of the flooding, said Liu Xiaowen, director of Shaanxi's flood-control headquarters.

The heavy rain continued for six hours, and the rainfall reached 259 millimeters -- a level not seen there in 500 years, Liu said.

Local government officials rushed to the flood-hit areas to help.

(China Daily July 6, 2002)