Hanoi - Vietnam has ordered fishing boats to shore ahead of a tropical storm forecast to hit the central coast this weekend, an official said Saturday. The Central Flood and Storm Steering Committee sent an instructive to coastal provinces in central Vietnam Friday night to order all fishing boats to shore, the centre's director Pham The Luong said.
"Nearly 160 fishing boats of six provinces from Danang to Binh Thuan with 4,428 fishermen are still at sea," the official said.
With wind speed of up to 74 kilometres an hour, the storm was 360 kilometres east of Binh Dinh province at 7 am (0000 GMT) Saturday and was moving northwest at 10 kilometres an hour, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorology Forecast.
If it continues moving at that speed, the storm would make landfall Sunday afternoon.
This is the second tropical storm to threaten Vietnam this year. Early last month, Tropical Storm Toraji hit the country's northern province of Quang Ninh but caused minimal damage.
More than 600 people were killed last year in Vietnam by storms and floods.
