Hong Kong has grounded flights, shut down its stock market and closed schools as super Typhoon Saola barrels towards China’s southern coast.
The finance hub issued a T8 threat warning – the city’s third-highest – at about 2:40am local time on Friday (18:40 GMT on Thursday).
Saola’s wind speeds topped 205 kilometres per hour (127 miles per hour) as it came within 230km (142 miles) east-southeast of the financial hub at about 8:00am local time (00:00 GMT), Hong Kong’s observatory said.
The weather would “deteriorate rapidly” throughout the day, the observatory said, warning of the possibility of serious flooding in low-lying coastal areas. Members of the public were also warned to stay away from the shoreline.
On China’s mainland, authorities issued the highest typhoon warning for the storm, which state media said would make landfall “in the coastal areas stretching from Huilai to Hong Kong” on Friday afternoon or evening.
Guangdong province also declared a windstorm emergency level I – the highest level of emergency response. Source: Aljazeera
