Standby warning Signal No. 1 was lowered late Wednesday afternoon in Hong Kong due to the peripheral impact of tropical storm Shanshan, which had already moved away from the city and headed towards western part of neighboring Guangdong Province.

At 4:00 p.m. local time, Shanshan's center was located at 21.3 degrees north latitude and 111.9 degrees east longitude, or about 250 km west-southwest of Hong Kong, according to Hong Kong Observatory.

The storm is forecast to move northwest or west-northwest at about 12 kph towards western Guangdong, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Though storm Shanshan failed to directly made a landfall in Hong Kong, it brought torrential rain to the metropolis and once caused chaos to traffic on Wednesday but without any casualty report.

All children care centers, elderly services centers and day rehabilitation units, including sheltered workshops and day activity centers, remained open to the public.

The Vocational Training Council suspended classes of all skills centers for the disabled for the whole day.

Scattered showers were forecast for the rest of the week, according to the observatory.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2006)