HONG KONG: Businesses, government offices, financial markets and schools were closed on Wednesday in Hong Kong and Macau with the approach of severe Tropical Storm Kammuri, but Olympic officials said that the storm was not affecting horses and riders here for the start of the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong on Saturday. With torrents of rain and powerful gusts, the storm slowly moved past the southernmost waters of Hong Kong and Macau and headed toward the coast of China. It was expected to make landfall about 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, southwest of Macau, which in turn is about 60 kilometers southwest of Hong Kong. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the storm, although government-owned Radio Television Hong Kong reported that scaffolding had been blown off buildings and trees had been uprooted. Kammuri strengthened overnight to become a severe tropical storm, after moving across the South China Sea on Tuesday as a less powerful tropical storm. Maximum sustained winds were 88 kilometers per hour on Wednesday morning on Cheung Chau, an island that belongs to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Observatory reported that maximum sustained winds in the center of Hong Kong were 48 kilometers an hour, with gusts of up to 97 kilometers an hour. The storm did not appear to be bothering the horses that have been flown in from all over the world for the Olympics, said Mark Pinkstone, the spokesman for the Hong Kong Equestrian Company. "The horses have been having a good sleep," he said on Wednesday in a telephone interview, adding that the stables also included an indoor training area usable in bad weather. The storm was expected to move deep into mainland China by Thursday morning. Officials have said that they did not expect it to delay the equestrian events in Hong Kong, scheduled to start on Saturday morning, unless the storm changes direction. Britain, the Netherlands and other countries also have many Olympic athletes doing their final training in Hong Kong and Macau. But buildings in both cities are built to withstand typhoons, which can be considerably more powerful than severe tropical storms. The United States basketball team also trained in Macau but left the city, as previously scheduled, well before the arrival of the storm.