(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan closed financial markets and offices Friday as Typhoon Nepartak approached the island. Airlines across southern China canceled or rerouted flights in and out of Taiwan.
Schools and government offices will also be closed on Friday in municipalities and counties across Taiwan, including Taipei, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration said in a statement on its website.
The first typhoon to form in the northwest Pacific Ocean this year had sustained winds of 198 kilometers an hour (123 miles per hour) gusting to 245 kilometers an hour, the Central Weather Bureau said. As of 8 p.m., the storm was 180 kilometers off the coast of eastern Taiwan's Taitung. The agency forecasts Nepartak's center will make landfall early Friday.
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. canceled 16 Taiwan flights scheduled for July 8. Taiwan's largest carrier China Airlines Ltd. said Friday morning flights are canceled or delayed. High speed rail service will be suspended until 5 p.m.
In China, the meteorological administration raised the level of its emergency response readiness and forecast Nepartak to make landfall on the coast of Fujian province Saturday morning.
--With assistance from Miaojung Lin To contact the reporter on this story: Yu-Huay Sun in Taipei at ysun7@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debra Mao at dmao5@bloomberg.net, Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Jeff Kearns
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