HANGZHOU - A forest fire broke out Thursday afternoon in east China's Zhejiang province, closing in on a temple and an oil depot nearby.

Firefighters, forest police and civilians are battling the fire, which is raging on a mountain in the city of Wenzhou.

The firefighting force is working to prevent the fire from reaching the Zhuangyuan oil depot, a major storage facility for petroleum in Wenzhou, a coastal city with a population of over nine million.

The oil depot was built in the 1950s.