The Meteorology Observatory of east China's Fujian Province issued early warning as "Pabuk", the seventh tropical storm this year, approached on Tuesday morning.

Pabuk started on the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines on Sunday afternoon. The eye of the storm, with speeds of 108 km per hour, was at 22 degrees north and 125.3 degrees east at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, according to the provincial meteorological observatory.

The Fujian Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief headquarters forecast that Pabuk will hit on Taiwan at noon on Wednesday, and then make landfall in Fujian Province sometime from late Wednesday to Thursday afternoon, accompanied by torrential rains.

The headquarters issued a circular instructing local governments to evacuate the elderly and kids from children from ship to shore before 6:00 PM on Tuesday.

Neighboring Zhejiang Province and Guangdong Province have also issued circulars urging officials to prepare for the storm, which is expected to sweep the above provinces from late Wednesday to Thursday afternoon.

Many parts of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong have been experiencing temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius for more than ten days. In Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, rainstorms on Saturday brought an end to 36 days of high temperature.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2007)