Sharjah24 - AFP: Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in southern China and Vietnam on Monday as a typhoon barrelled towards land.
The China Meteorological Administration said typhoon Talim made landfall on the coast of Guangdong province at around 10:20 pm (1420 GMT).
Powerful winds, storm surges and lashing rains were forecast to hammer the southern coastline from Guangdong to Hainan provinces on Monday night, it said.
The forecaster had issued an orange alert, the second-highest warning in a four-tier colour-coded system.
It said the storm was expected to lose speed by Tuesday morning and "weaken and dissipate over northern Vietnam" on Wednesday.
Authorities in Vietnam said they were preparing to evacuate about 30,000 people from the areas forecast to be hardest hit in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong provinces from Monday afternoon.
Talim "might be one of the biggest to hit the Gulf of Tonkin in recent years", Vietnam's top disaster response committee said in an online statement.
Tourists have been advised to leave outlying islands and airlines have rescheduled services to avoid the storm.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed disaster response teams to prepare for "immediate rescue and relief works" late Sunday, warning of possible floods.
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