Beijing, Jun 13 (AP) Authorities evacuated thousands of people, closed schools and cancelled flights on Friday as a severe tropical storm dumped heavy rain on parts of China's Hainan island and headed for the country's southern coast.

Photos posted by a Chinese news outlet showed toppled trees and a strewn corrugated metal fence at a construction site in the city of Sanya, a popular beach resort on Hainan.

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All schools, construction sites and tourist attractions in Sanya were closed and flights were suspended at the city's airport, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A dozen crew members were rescued Thursday night from a cargo ship that called for help, Xinhua said. The crew were transferred to a rescue vessel in rough seas with 3-metre waves.

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Tropical Storm Wutip had maximum sustained winds of 108 kilometres per hour as it headed northwest off Hainan's west coast. It was forecast to turn northeast and make landfall around noon Saturday on the Chinese mainland near the border between Guangdong province and the Guangxi region.

Guangdong activated rescue boats and helicopters and more than 49,000 fishing boats returned to port, Xinhua said. The provincial meteorological agency forecast heavy rain and said tornadoes were possible.

Wutip means “butterfly” in Cantonese, which is spoken in Macao. Countries and the Chinese regions of Hong Kong and Macao contribute the names for storms during the typhoon season. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)