NNA - Tens of millions of people in Shanghai and China's east coast were confined to their homes on Monday as Typhoon Bebinca, the strongest to hit the region since 1949, forced flight cancellations and evacuations, AFP reported.

The typhoon first crossed the Philippines and then Japan, making landfall in the eastern part of the city in the Lingang New City in the Pudong district at around 7:30 am, triggering a red alert.

With winds of up to 151 kilometres per hour, state broadcaster CCTV said it was "the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Shanghai since 1949".

All flights were cancelled at Shanghai's two main airports as the typhoon approached the east coast, one of the country's most populous regions. Shanghai's city government advised the city's 25 million residents to stay indoors, while 9,000 people were evacuated from the Chongming area, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Expressways were closed from 1 a.m. on Saturday, with speed limits set at 40 kilometers per hour on city streets.

The typhoon coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a public holiday in the country, during which the railway operator expects 74 million people to travel, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Ministry of Disaster Management has urged employees to be cautious due to the "huge movement" of people.

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