Hurricane Melissa rapidly intensifies, threatening major Caribbean flooding

Tropical Storm Melissa has strengthened into a hurricane, the United States-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) says, as people across several Caribbean countries braced for heavy rainfall and dangerous flooding.

Hurricane Melissa was located about 380km (235 miles) southwest of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, the NHC said in its latest advisory on Saturday afternoon.