The move comes after the Central Weather Bureau warned the public to "take special precaution against landslides and flash floods and stay away from low-lying areas as Typhoon Tembin is expected to bring heavy rains".

Tembin was expected to make landfall early Friday morning, later than the bureau's previous forecast, as it slowed down the past few hours, said the official.

She added that the route of its movement might also be affected by Bolaven, another typhoon around 1,400 kilometres east of Taiwan.

As of 6:15 pm (1015 GMT), Tembin was 320 kilometres (200 miles) east of Taitung, a coastal city in the east where weather forecasters said may bear the brunt of the approaching typhoon.

With a radius of 180 kilometres and packing winds gusting at up to 144 kilometres an hour, the typhoon was moving west-northwest at six kilometres per hour.