An oil tanker has capsized off the coast of Limay in the Philippines early this morning, causing a significant oil spill.The vessel, MT Terra Nova, was carrying 1,494 metric tonnes of industrial fuel.

The Philippine Coast Guard is investigating the incident to determine if it is linked to Typhoon Gaemi.

Transportation secretary Jaime Bautista confirmed the incident, noting that strong winds and high waves have hindered immediate response efforts.

Of the 17 crew members aboard, 16 have been rescued, while one remains missing. A search operation is underway.

“There was no weather disturbance in the vicinity waters when the maritime incident occurred,” Coast Guard spokesperson Armando Balilo, said.

The authorities are working to address the environmental impact of the spill as rescue and investigation efforts continue.

Chinese weather forecasters said Gaemi will pass through Fujian province later on Thursday and head inland, gradually moving northward with less intensity.

But weather forecasters are expecting heavy rain in many areas as it tracks north.

Government officials have already prepared for heavy rain and flooding, raising advisories and warnings in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.

In Fujian, government officials have relocated about 150,000 people, mainly from coastal fishing communities, state media reported.

As gale force winds picked up, officials in Zhoushan in Zhejiang province suspended passenger waterway routes for up to three days.

Most flights were cancelled at airports in Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang, according to the VariFlight app.

Guangzhou rail officials suspended some trains that pass through typhoon-affected areas, according to CCTV.

Meanwhile, north China is experiencing heavy rain from summer storms around a separate weather system.

Officials in capital Beijing upgraded and issued a red warning late on Wednesday night for torrential rain expected through most of Thursday, according to Chinese state media.

Some areas have already experienced heavy rain and emergency plans were activated, with more than 25,000 people evacuated, according to Beijing Daily.

Some train services were also suspended at the Beijing West Railway Station, state media said.

The Beijing Fangshan District Meteorological Observatory expects that by 10am (2am GMT) many parts of the city will have more than 150mm (6 inches) of rainfall in six hours, and in some other areas more than 200mm (8 inches) in 24 hours, state television reported.

A Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board has sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung amid extreme weather brought by Typhoon Gaemi, Taiwan’s fire department said.

Officials say there has been no response from the crew.

Search efforts were ongoing, it added.

Typhoon Gaemi has brought heavy rainfall, gusty winds and a dangerous storm surge to Taiwan.

Three people have died and 266 were injured in Taiwan as Typhoon Gaemi barrelled through the island.

One scooter rider in southern Kaohsiung city was crushed by a falling tree before the arrival of storm, a woman in eastern Hualien died after a wall fell on the car she was in, and a neighbourhood leader in New Taipei was driving an excavator which overturned, authorities said.

The storm made landfall around midnight local time (5pm BST) on the northeastern coast of Taiwan in Yilan county.

It is the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years and was packing gusts of up to 227kph (141mph) before weakening, according to the Central Weather Administration.

The island was lashed by hours of heavy rain and powerful winds.

Excess ocean heat may be helping fuel the typhoon that’s nearing Taiwan.

Scientists say climate change is making typhoons – tropical cyclones that gain energy by feeding on ocean heat – more intense, capable of reaching greater wind speeds and dumping more rain.

Wind speeds at the typhoon’s centre were approaching their second-highest ever recorded for the Western Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon.

As Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan, it has escalated into a super-typhoon before making landfall.

A super-typhoon is an extremely powerful tropical cyclone in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, distinguished by sustained wind speeds of at least 150 miles per hour (241 kilometres per hour).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) uses this classification, placing super-typhoons on par with the most intense hurricanes in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, specifically Category 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Historically, super-storms like Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013 and Typhoon Meranti in 2016 have caused widespread destruction. More than 14 million people were affected by Haiyan. It also pushed 2.3 million people into poverty.

Typhoon Meranti which struck the Philippines, Taiwan and mainland China, was one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, causing more than $2.6 billion in damage and leading to more than 30 deaths.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes in the Philippines, thanks to monsoon rains and the typhoon:

Weather experts say Taiwan’s mountains have forced the typhoon to change course.

Television forecaster Jeff Berardelli said friction from the large mountains deflected the storm by disrupting its circulation.

Hurricane researcher Michael Ferragamo said: “I’d say there’s some sort of geography at play here, with the higher terrain of the island perhaps deflecting conventional motion to the south.”

Typhoon Gaemi is expected to bring heavy to very intense rains over vast swathes of China from Thursday, the water resources ministry warned.

The rains are expected to last for a week, fuelled by the typhoon’s abundant moisture, it added.

China’s National Meteorological Centre has issued a red alert, the highest level, according to Xinhua.

Meteorologists and cyclone researchers have been surprised by the path Typhoon Gaemi has taken.

One said it made a sharp unexpected turn south before slamming into the Taiwan coast, then looped around and was now heading for its second attempted landfall.

Radar images showed it moving anti-clockwise off the east coast.