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TAIPEI - Taiwan's weather bureau urged residents to prepare for Typhoon Matsa which it said could hit by Thursday, bringing strong winds and heavy rains, and triggering landslides.

Matsa, the name of a fish in Laos, was 560 kilometers (347 miles) east-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Oluanpi at 11:30 am (0330 GMT) Wednesday.

With a radius of 250 kilometers, it was moving northwest at 15 kilometers per hour and could hit the island Thursday or Friday. Residents in low-lying areas were urged to guard against floods while those in mountainous regions were told to watch out for mudslides.

In August last year, Typhoon Aere claimed 24 lives when strong winds and downpours touched off mudslides, burying an entire village in the mountains of northern Hsinchu county.