Offices, schools across Taiwan to close on Wednesday due to typhoon

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) Government offices and schools in every city and county across Taiwan will close on Wednesday because of Typhoon Krathon, various local governments announced on Tuesday evening.

Many private businesses and financial institutions, including Taiwan's stock market, will also be closed on Wednesday.

Wednesday's closures will be the second "typhoon day" in Chiayi County, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County in the south as well as in Hualien and Taitung County in the east of the country.

Places including Hualien have already been hit by heavy rainfall since Sunday evening, while landslides disrupted rail services and road traffic from Monday.

Waves up to five meters high were also reported in Pingtung on Tuesday.

On so-called "typhoon days" announced by local governments in response to powerful storms, many workers can have the day off, in line with mandatory closures of certain government offices.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Krathon was located 180 kilometers to the south-southwest of Kaohsiung and moving north-northeast at a slow speed of six kilometers per hour, data from the Central Weather Administration (CWA) showed.

With a radius of 220 km, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 198 kph, with gusts of up to 245 kph, the data indicated.

Typhoon Krathon was named by Thailand after a type of fruit, also known as santol. In the Philippines, the typhoon is known as Julian under the country's own naming system.