Hong Kong - Flights were grounded and schools closed as Typhoon Hagupit side-swiped Hong Kong Wednesday, but the high-rise city of 6.9 million people was spared a direct hit.

Hundreds of trees were felled and roads were flooded as torrential rain and gale-force winds lashed the former British colony, grounding all flights after 9 pm Tuesday.

The ferocious typhoon, one of the strongest to hit the region this year, passed within 180 km of Hong Kong and was expected to make landfall Wednesday morning in neighbouring southern China.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong braced for Typhoon Hagupit Tuesday, cancelling dozens of flights and ferry services, after the storm killed five people and left four missing in the Philippines.

Two of the people killed in the Philippines drowned in a swollen river in the central province of Antique, two were buried in landslides in the northern city of Baguio and one was electrocuted in the northern province of La Union, relief officials said.

Rescuers were also struggling to extricate 13 miners trapped in a flooded shaft of a goldmine in Itogon town in Benguet province, 225 kilometres north of Manila.

Hong Kong  - Dozens of flights were cancelled Tuesday as Typhoon Hagupit, which killed at least five people in the Philippines, bore down on Hong Kong.

Schools and kindergartens were closed Tuesday afternoon, and ferry services to outlying islands were suspended as the fast-moving storm closed in on the high-rise city of 6.9 million.

Weathermen forecast the typhoon would brush past Hong Kong Tuesday evening before making landfall in southern China. A high storm signal was expected to be hoisted by 6 pm (1000 GMT) Tuesday.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority said 47 flights had been cancelled Tuesday afternoon as high winds and squally rain lashed the former British colony.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong stocks ended a two-day rally Tuesday and fell back 3.87 per cent amid faltering confidence in the US plan to rescue large Wall Street debtors.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 759.35 points to end the day at 18,872.85 points. Turnover was 64.3 billion US dollars (8.27 billion US dollars).

The decline followed two days of strong gains that took the Hong Kong index to within touching distance of the 20,000-point mark by Monday.

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong teenager celebrating his 18th birthday and three of his friends were Monday confirmed as being among the 43 dead in Saturday's nightclub blaze in southern China.

Choi Wai-tat and his friends crossed the border to Shenzhen to celebrate his birthday in the Dance King nightclub which is popular with Hong Kong youths because of its cheap drinks.

He died with his friends aged 17 to 20 as smoke from a fireworks show that went wrong billowed through the unlicensed club and people scrambled to try to escape through a single exit, officials said.

The only member of the Hong Kong party to survive the tragedy was Cheng Sze-lap, who later told reporters he was knocked unconscious in the stampede for the exit.

Hong Kong Suicides on Hong Kong's railway lines have declined by almost 60 per cent since platform screen doors were installed at underground train stations, an expert study said Sunday.

The number of people jumping to their deaths in front of trains annually has dropped from 10.2 to 4.4 in the five years since the barriers which run the length of platforms began to be put up.