The severe tropical storm Lekima was upgraded to typhoon Tuesday afternoon and is moving closer towards south China's island province of Hainan, where 100,000 people have been evacuated, Xinhua quoted local authorities as saying. Lekima, named after a fruit in Vietnam, was located at 17.7 degrees north latitude and 110.4 degrees east longitude at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, about 110 km southeast of Sanya, the southernmost city of Hainan, the Hainan Provincial Meteorological Observatory said. Lekima, upgraded to typhoon at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, is packing winds of about 118.8 kilometers per hour at its eye and heading towards northwest at a speed of 15 km per hour, the observatory said. It was forecast to land in the south of the island or pass by on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, it said.
