'Koinu' heads to south China, HK after killing 1

BEIJING: Typhoon «Koinu» headed toward southern China and Hong Kong on Friday after bringing record-breaking winds and leaving one dead in Taiwan.

Koinu — «puppy» in Japanese — was weakening as it headed west across the South China Sea toward China's Guangdong province, the China Meteorological Administration said. It was forecast to turn into a tropical storm by Saturday morning and turn southwest, taking it over waters that parallel the East Asian country's southeastern coast on Sunday.

The storm was about 370 kilometers (230 miles) from Hong Kong on Friday morning and moving at about 10 km per hour (6 miles per hour), the Hong Kong Observatory said. The southern Chinese city was hit by heavy rains about one month ago that killed at least two people and caused widespread flooding.

Ferry service was suspended in parts of Guangdong, and its capital Guangzhou canceled some flights and trains.

Koinu brought pounding rain and wind gusts to southern and central Taiwan on Thursday, downing trees and damaging buildings. An 84-year-old woman was killed by flying glass in the western city of Taichung and about 400 others were injured around the island, Taipei's fire department said.

A weather monitoring station on Taiwan's outlying Orchid Island measured a gust of 342.7 kph (212.9 mph) at 9:53 p.m. on Wednesday, as well as sustained winds that reached 198.7 kph (123.5 kph) at 9:40 p.m. The device measuring the wind speeds broke shortly afterward, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.