TAIPEI: Workers mounted sandbag barriers and fishing boats returned to port as Taiwan braced for a pounding from Typhoon Fung-wong, which forecasters said was picking up momentum.

Taiwan is still reeling from storms earlier this month which left 20 people dead, and the Central Weather Bureau warned residents to take extra precautions against the oncoming typhoon.

With a radius of 200 kilometres (120 miles), it was measured packing gusts of 126 kilometres per hour.

At 0300 GMT, the eye of the typhoon was around 370 kilometres southeast of Hualien city in Taiwan's east, where it is expected to make landfall on Monday morning.

Television images showed workers piling sandbags along a river in Wuje, a town in central Taiwan flooded by storm Kalmaegi earlier this month.

President Ma Ying-jeou visited the central Nantou county which was plagued by landslides triggered by downpours from that storm.

The Maokong Gondola, a popular lift system outside the capital Taipei, was shut down while ferry boat services between the southern city of Kaohsiung and Penghu Island in the Taiwan Strait were halted.

Hundreds of fishing boats sought shelter in ports.

"All residents must heighten their vigilance as the typhoon continues to gain force and may bring in strong winds and heavy rains," a Central Weather Bureau forecaster said, adding that total rainfall may reach 900 millimetres (35 inches).


- AFP/so