With threat from Typhoon Prapiroon, south China's Guangdong Province has suspended all passenger railway services across the Qiongzhou Strait linking the island province of Hainan with the inland area.

The provincial meteorological authorities Thursday called on all ships and fishermen still out on sea to return to harbor and land as quickly as possible as Prapiroon is approaching more fast than previously forecast.

Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Station forecast that typhoon Prapiroon will lash the coastal area between Taishan City and Xuwen County in Guangdong from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, packing heavy rain and strong wind.

According to the observatory, at 7:00 a.m. Thursday, Prapiroon was located at 20.1 degrees north latitude and 113 degrees east longitude, more than 300 kilometers from the coast of western Guangdong. The wind power reached 12 degrees on the Beaufort Scalenear its eye.

It is forecast to move westward at 15 kilometers per hour in the coming 24 hours and will gain strength.

Influenced by typhoon Prapiroon, heavy rain hit most parts of Guangdong starting from Wednesday and the typhoon will bring rainstorms to western Guangdong and nearby areas from Thursday to Saturday. The typhoon also brings force nine to 12 gales to sea areas it swept through and to coastal areas of western Guangdong.

Guangdong provincial observatory also called on government departments to prepare for possible high waves, landslides, mountain torrents, mud-and-rock flow, collapse of houses and flooding that might be caused by the devastating typhoon.

Local railway authorities said that railway services could be only resumed depending on weather conditions.

Prapiroon was expected to affect Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou, bringing 100 to 180 millimeters of rain, said Wang Bangzhong, an official with the Chinese Central Meteorological Station.

Wang predicted August would see another five or six tropical storms form in the seas around South China Sea, but only two or three might make landfall.

Prapiroon killed five people when it crossed the northern Philippines earlier in the week.

Hainan and Guangdong provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, all in south China, have relocated 65,000 people and recalled 53,200 vessels to harbor by Wednesday noon.

Prapiroon, which means Rain God in Thai, formed in the South China Sea and strengthened into a typhoon on Wednesday noon. It is expected to lash south China for three or four days, according to the Chinese Central Meteorological Station.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Wednesday ordered meteorological agencies to maintain their alert status and ensure timely warnings as they monitored killer typhoon Prapiroon.

Hui, also the head of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, called for vessels to return to harbor and measures to ensure safety of people in the storm's path.

China was being hit with more typhoons and tropical rainstorms this year in part due to the warming ocean current in the northwest Pacific and high temperatures in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, said Wang.

The year's first typhoon, Chanchu, hit on May 18, at least 40 days earlier than most years. Prapiroon is the sixth typhoon to hit China.

The fifth typhoon, Kaemi, in late July claimed 35 lives, including six at a military barracks in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The fourth typhoon, Bilis, lashed south and east China and claimed 612 lives in southern China in mid July.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)