Beijing, Aug 31 (IANS): China's National Meteorological Centre (NMC) on Thursday renewed a red alert for typhoon Saola, the "most severe" warning in its four-tier typhoon warning system, as the ninth typhoon of this year is expected to bring gales and heavy rain to the southern and eastern parts of the country.

The typhoon, observed over the ocean about 330 km southeast of Huilai County in Guangdong Province at 5 a.m. on Thursday, is expected to move northwest at a speed of 10 km per hour with slowly decreased intensity, Xinhua news agency quoted the NMC as saying.

It will make landfall somewhere in the coastal areas stretching from Huilai to Hong Kong on Friday afternoon or Friday night, or move west by south and pass through the waters of eastern Guangdong without making landfall, the Centre said.

Some areas around the Bashi Channel, the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, as well as the coastal areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan, among others, will experience gales with a maximum wind force of more than grade-17 near the typhoon center from 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday, according to the NMC.

During this period, parts of Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan will experience heavy rain and some areas will see heavy downpours of 100 to 220 mm, it added.

The meteorological centre has also issued an advisory suspending both indoor and outdoor gatherings, as well as dangerous outdoor operations, and recommended the timely transfer of people living in vulnerable housing.

It further called for emergency typhoon preparations and precautions against possible geological disasters.

China has a four-tier, colour-coded weather warning system for typhoons, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.