Tropical depression to develop into typhoon, expected to land in southeastern China

BEIJING -- A tropical depression that formed over waters east of the Philippines on Thursday morning is expected to develop into a typhoon within the next 12 to 24 hours and make landfall along the coast of southeastern China, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

After landfall, the typhoon will gradually turn north by west and weaken in intensity.

The depression was located about 930 km east of Manila, the Philippines, at 8 am on Thursday, moving west by north at a speed of 25 to 30 km per hour.

This will be the third typhoon to hit China this year, following Typhoon Maysak and Typhoon Bavi.

The NMC said on Wednesday that two to three typhoons are expected to form over the northwestern Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea in the next 10 days, with one of them likely to enter the northern part of the South China Sea around Saturday and affect southern China.

This year's 12th typhoon will be named Noul, the NMC also revealed.