The typhoon will make landfall in the East Sea on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre has rejected reports alleging the eighth storm to hit the central region of Việt Nam, known as Saudel, is actually a super typhoon.

The fake news was spread on Facebook citing the Japanese national weather forecasting centre.

“All of these predictions about Typhoon Saudel are baseless and fake. The Japanese weather forecasting centre and other countries have said no such thing,” said Trần Quang Năng, head of the weather forecasting department at the centre.

At 1pm on Tuesday, the typhoon was about 220km from Luzon Island in the Philippines, with winds reaching 60-75km per hour.

In the next 24 hours, it will move west-northwest across the South China Sea (called the East Sea by Việt Nam) on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

Typhoon Saudel is predicted to strengthen after it makes landfall and brings heavy rain to northern and central regions.

Năng asked the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control to punish those responsible for spreading inaccurate information on social networks, causing public confusion.

This issue should be handled promptly to ensure people only access accurate information released by the authorities so they could respond to natural disasters, helping to mitigate the damage they caused, he said. — VNS