Abu Dhabi — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have warned residents to avoid going to the beaches, coastal areas or out to sea as tropical storm Shaheen approaches, according to a statement.

The first meeting of the National Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management Team Level Two, related to natural disasters, was held on Thursday, in order to raise national preparedness ahead of the storm making landfall.

“We recommend everyone, specifically those residing in the eastern coastal areas, to follow all procedures and measures as announced by the concerned authorities at the local level,” authorities said during a press conference on Saturday.

“It is expected, according to the forecasts of the National Center of Meteorology and Seismology, that some eastern coastal areas of the country will be affected from tomorrow, Sunday, October 3, until Tuesday, October 5, and the official spokesman for the National Center of Meteorology will give more details about it,” the statement from emergency officials read according to a state-run news agency report.

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said on Saturday that Tropical cyclone Shaheen is currently centered in the northwest of the Arabian Sea at latitude 24.3 N and longitude 60.9 E, and is forming form different types of clouds accompanied with rainy convective clouds of different intensity and strong winds on the Arabian Sea with a speed around the center from 116 to 150 km/hr.

It added that the center of the cyclone is 440 km away from the coast of Fujairah. The speed of the cyclone's movement is 11 km / hr in the direction of west - northwest. — WAM