Countries across East and Southeast Asia are issuing emergency alerts and ordering evacuations as Super Typhoon Mangkhut barrels down on the region. Authorities started to evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas on Thursday as the super typhoon with winds of more than 205 km per hour bore down on Philippine's Luzon island with Hong Kong and Macau square in its path. The Typhoon is forecasted to make landfall early on Saturday 15th September 2018 and will be the strongest of 15 storms to have hit the APAC region this year. Medical and emergency response teams are on standby as Mangkhut, known locally as Ompong, edge towards the storm-prone nations.