TAIPEI: Taiwan evacuated thousands of people from remote villages on Sunday as a typhoon which has left at least seven people dead in the Philippines approached, packing torrential rain and fierce winds.
The authorities pulled some 2,500 villagers from the east and south of the island, the Central Emergency Centre said, with Typhoon Nanmadol forecast to make landfall in eastern Taiwan on Tuesday.
A Singapore-bound flight and 22 domestic services have been cancelled while shipping transportation services between Taiwan and several offshore islands have also been interrupted.
The Central Weather Bureau urged the public to stay away from mountainous and low-lying areas as the typhoon, Taiwan's first of the year, may bring fierce wind and heavy rain, sparking flash floods and landslides.
The defence ministry ordered 35,000 soldiers in the east to stand by.
At 0500 GMT, the typhoon was 100 kilometres southeast of the southernmost tip of Taiwan, the bureau said.
It said the storm was packing gusts of 155 kilometres an hour and moving north at 10 kilometres an hour.
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