HANOI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Son Tinh, the third tropical storm in the South China Sea so far this year, has been forecat to make landfall in Vietnam's coastal localities, mainly central ones, in the late afternoon or evening of Wednesday.

Son Tinh is likely to affect several coastal localities, from northern Thai Binh province to central Ha Tinh province, the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting said on Wednesday morning, adding that the two central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An may be hardest hit by the typhoon.

Northern Quang Ninh province has banned all boats and ships from operating on rivers, and banned all tourism ships from sailing to the world heritage site of Ha Long Bay. The provincial authorities have also called for tourists on Co To Island to come back to the mainland.

Southern Kien Giang province has ordered all high-speech passenger ships and boats to cease operations since Tuesday to avoid the typhoon. Many other localities have called for fishing ships and boats to take shelter.

In Vietnam in the first half of this year, natural disasters, mainly floods and landslides, killed or left missing 33 people and injured 47 others, destroyed or damaged 15,000 houses, and damaged nearly 11,000 hectares of rice and other crops, causing property losses of over 808 billion Vietnamese dong (35.6 million U.S. dollars), according to its General Statistics Office.