Taiwan's weather bureau has urged residents to prepare for Typhoon Matsa, which it said could hit the island today or tomorrow, bringing strong winds and heavy rains and triggering landslides.
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Matsa, the name of a fish in Laos, was 560 kilometers east-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Oluanpi on Wednesday morning, the bureau said.
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With a radius of 250 kilometers, it was moving northwest at 15 kilometers per hour, it said.

Residents in low-lying areas were urged to guard against floods while those in mountainous regions were told to watch out for mudslides.
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Matsa is expected to sweep through Fujian or Zhejiang after Taiwan, according to forecasters.
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In August last year, Typhoon Aere claimed 24 lives when strong winds and downpours touched off mudslides, burying an entire village in the mountains of northern Hsinchu County.
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(Shenzhen Daily August 4, 2005)