China and Vietnam evacuate thousands as storm strikes

HANOI (Reuters) - China and Vietnam evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from low-lying coastal areas on Wednesday as Typhoon Lekima lashed the region with torrential rains and heavy winds.

The storm passed over the central Vietnam province of Quang Binh on Wednesday night and blew westward toward Laos, officials said. They said the storm hit relatively under-populated areas but they would not know the extent of damage until Thursday.

The typhoon made landfall late on Tuesday near China's beach resort of Sanya, on the southern tip of tropical Hainan island, trapping tourists and forcing the evacuation of 225,000 people.

Vietnam had moved hundreds of thousands of children and the elderly to higher ground.

More than 20,000 fishing boats were ordered back to port as the storm shut down almost all tourist attractions in Sanya during what should have been a peak national holiday week.

Lekima -- the Vietnamese name of a fruit -- carried winds of up to 120 kph (75 mph) from the east. Heavy rains fell in the central provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An.

More than 3,000 passengers and some 1,200 cars were stranded in Hainan on Tuesday as ferries linking the island province with the Chinese mainland were suspended because of the typhoon.

Vietnamese soldiers and disaster officials helped move children and the elderly to school compounds in Thanh Hoa, 150 km (90 miles) south of Hanoi, while fishing boats dropped anchor in sheltered rivers, a Reuters reporter travelling in the region said.

The government also warned of landslides and flash floods in the central provinces.