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TAIPEI: Taiwan's financial markets were shut and flights cancelled on Friday as Typhoon Morakot approached the island unleashing powerful winds and heavy rain.
All domestic flights and trains were cancelled until noon while some flights to China, Hong Kong and Macau were disrupted, the airlines said.
Offices and summer schools on the main island were shut down and most weekend outdoor festivities postponed, authorities said.
The weather bureau warned residents of flooding and mudslides as Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, is expected to generate up to 1,200 millimetres (47 inches) of rain.
More than 300 people in northern Taoyuan county were evacuated to safety as a precaution and around 1,000 fishermen were taking shelter on land, according to the National Fire Agency, which coordinates rescue work.
At 8:30 am (0030 GMT), the typhoon was 200 kilometres (124 miles) southeast of northeastern Ilan county, moving west-northwest at 12 kilometres per hour and packing gusts of 144 kilometres per hour.
The bureau warned that the typhoon's impact is prolonged as it is moving slowly and could make landfall in the northeast in the evening if it keeps to the forecast course.
On Thursday, more than 200 flights were disrupted in Japan as Morakot brought heavy rain and strong winds packing gusts of up to 198 kilometres per hour to southern remote islands in the country.
Some 220 flights, mainly departing from and landing at Naha and other airports on islands in the prefectures of Okinawa and Kagoshima, were cancelled, affecting about 40,000 passengers, Kyodo News reported.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Transocean Air of the Japan Airlines group plan to cancel more than 50 flights leaving airports in Okinawa prefecture on Friday, it said.
Meanwhile, China has evacuated more than 20,000 people and called over 30,000 boats back to port as it braces for the arrival of the typhoon, expected to reach China on Saturday.
- AFP/yb
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