Typhoon Podul slammed into southeastern Taiwan on Wednesday, with powerful winds and heavy rain lashing the island.

The typhoon had wind gusts of 191 kilometres (119 miles) per hour as it made landfall in Taitung County at around 1:00 pm (0500 GMT), the Central Weather Administration said.

Podul is expected to sweep across the island and into the Taiwan Strait later Wednesday, battering central and southern areas still recovering from storms last month.

More than 5,500 people living in the typhoon's path have been evacuated from their homes, while fishermen have secured their boats.

"We are worried about this typhoon," Kaohsiung fisherman Huang Wei told AFP as he used more ropes to tie down his boat and checked on other vessels hours ahead of Podul making landfall.

"We had already mad

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