(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Irene, currently located about 10 miles (20 km) southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was moving across eastern Puerto Rico just below hurricane strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Monday.
At 03:00 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. British time) the storm is presently moving west northwest at 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) and has maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h), the NHC said in its latest report.
"This general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days with a gradual decrease in forward speed," the NHC said.
The NHC added that the government of The Dominican Republic has changed the hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning for the south coast of The Dominican Republic.
(Reporting by Naveen Arul in Bangalore)
