China evacuated as many as 320,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May bore down on the south coast yesterday, causing flight and shipping delays around the region.

Typhoon Chanchu, packing winds up to 170 kmh (106 mph), was forecast to make landfall northeast of Hong Kong in Guangdong province later yesterday after killing 37 people as it swept across the Philippines last weekend.

Hong Kong radio said some 320,000 people were evacuated from the coast in Guangdong province while Xinhua news agency put the number at more than 180,000.

Xinhua quoted provincial rescue officials as saying that by Tuesday night 25,219 ships had been called back to port.

In Taiwan, where most areas were lashed by heavy rains, rescuers winched to safety the crew of an oil tanker that had run aground of the coast of Kaoshiung in the south after being hit by a large wave, television footage showed.