SYDNEY, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Emergency warnings have been issued for thousands of people as Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle approaches the northeast coast of Australia's Queensland.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said in an update at 7 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time on Thursday (2100 GMT on Wednesday) that Tropical Cyclone Narelle had reached Category 4 strength and could intensify into a Category 5 storm before making landfall early on Friday.

The BoM said that very destructive wind gusts in excess of 250 km per hour are possible near the center of the cyclone when it crosses the coast, and that heavy rainfall, which could cause flash flooding, is expected to hit from Thursday evening.

"A severe impact is likely," it said.

It said that the storm was about 440 km off the east coast of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula on Thursday morning and moving west at a speed of 25 km per hour.

An emergency warning has been issued for a 600-km stretch of the peninsula's east coast, including Cooktown with a population of around 1,800 people and the 500-person Aboriginal community of Lockhart River.

David Crisafulli, the premier of Queensland, said that people in the emergency warning area should stock up on emergency supplies.

"We're just asking people to take it seriously because it is a big system," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television.

The BoM is forecasting that the cyclone will temporarily weaken as it crosses a 220-km wide stretch of the Cape York Peninsula before reaching the Gulf of Carpentaria and again intensifying to a severe system and impacting the Northern Territory (NT) over the weekend.

Authorities in the NT said on Wednesday night that around 500 people in the remote community of Numbulwar would be evacuated over the coming days as a precaution. ■