The flood control authorities of Xiamen, a coastal city in east China's Fujian Province, has ordered fishermen and ships out at sea to return to land as quickly as possible as typhoon Bilis is approaching.

The Xiamen Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters set an 8 p.m. deadline on Thursday for their return. The local fishery department is calculating how many people need to be evacuated and how many ships need to be called back.

Officials in charge of the evacuation work will be dealt with harshly if they can not finish the evacuation task in time, according to the notice.

Tropical storm Bilis, the fourth to threaten China this year, is forecast to move northwestward at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour, according to Fujian Provincial Meteorological Station on Thursday.

Bilis is expected to hit the coastal area of Taiwan between Thursday afternoon and night, and is forecast to hit the coast of central Fujian between Friday morning and night, seriously affecting areas it sweeps through.

According to the Fujian provincial observatory, the center of Bilis was 240 kilometers southeast of Taiwan out at sea - 23 degrees north latitude and 123.7 degrees east longitude - on Thursday morning.

The maximum wind force near the storm center measured 10 on the Beaufort Scale.

The provincial government has urged all the related departments to be fully prepared to deal with the storm and any ensuing landslides.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2006)