Hurricane Blanca weakens to tropical storm near Mexico

Hurricane Blanca weakened to tropical storm force on Sunday as it approached Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Blanca gradually lost steam since reaching category four strength on Saturday and was now packing maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers (70 miles) per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The tropical storm was 210 kilometers (130 miles) southwest of the Cabo San Lucas resort town at 2100 GMT, the center said.

Blanca will move "near or along the coast" of Baja California later Sunday or Monday before weakening further into a tropical depression, it said.

In September, the resort of Los Cabos, with about 240,000 residents and popular with American tourists, suffered the brunt of Hurricane Odile, which left six people dead and caused massive property damage.