Hong Kong (CNN) — Nearly 2 million people in southern China were evacuated as a powerful typhoon hurtled into one of the world’s most densely populated coasts, having already unleashed deadly flooding in Taiwan.

Ragasa brought finance hub Hong Kong and swathes of southern China to a standstill on Wednesday, after barreling through remote islands in the Philippines and mountainous regions of Taiwan.

It began to lose strength and was downgraded to a severe tropical storm in the early hours of Thursday morning, local time, but not before leaving a trail of damage – triggering landslides, flooding and huge waves in China’s Guangdong province, home to massive cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

With the storm expected to keep moving westward on Thursday, some train services in southern C

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