Irma batters Caribbean islands

Monster Hurricane Irma slammed into the French Caribbean islands yesterday after making landfall in Barbuda, packing ferocious winds and causing major flooding in low-lying areas.

As the rare Category Five storm barreled its way across the Caribbean, it brought gusting winds of up to 185 miles per hour (294 kilometers per hour), weather experts said.

After making landfall just before 0600 GMT in Barbuda, part of the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the hurricane swept on to French-run Saint Barthelemy, also known as St Barts, and Saint Martin, an island divided between France and the Netherlands.

The French weather office said Irma was "a historic hurricane (with) an unprecedented intensity over the Atlantic," with a French minister saying it had already "caused major damage" across the two territories.

Coastal areas were being "battered extremely violently" by the sea, with the weather office logging winds of 244 kph (151 mph) before its monitoring equipment was destroyed by the hurricane.

With the islands on maximum alert ahead of the arrival of the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, France had raised the alarm over the fate of some 7,000 people who refused to seek shelter.

France's minister for overseas territories said the islanders had likely underestimated the power of the storm.

Dutch national broadcaster NOS also reported "enormous damage" on Saint Martin, with residents speaking of widespread destruction.

Saba Island and St Eustatius, two other Dutch-run territories to the south, were also hit.

The massive hurricane, which is beating a path northwest, was also expected to hit the larger French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.