Mexico City, Sep 2 (EFE) Officials in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur have started evacuating residents of Pacific coastal communities as Hurricane Jimena approaches the area.

Hurricane Jimena is a category four storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.

'Already in Los Cabos, particularly in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, we have a significant number of families in the temporary shelters. In the city of La Paz, we are still waiting to get the order to begin the evacuations,' Baja California Sur Government secretary Luis Armando Diaz said Tuesday.

The focus of the evacuation operation has been on the tourist area of Los Cabos, where 'the areas of risk and high risk' have been evacuated in the past few hours, the official told MVS radio.

A total of 159 shelters with the 'capacity to hold 29,000 people' have been opened across Baja California, Diaz said.

'The army is already working at the majority of the shelters, along with municipal, state and, of course, federal authorities,' Diaz said.