Hurricane Melissa is grinding across Cuba as a Category 3 storm after pummelling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record , the US National Hurricane Centre says.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Cuba had been evacuated to shelters on Wednesday. A hurricane warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguin and Las Tunas provinces as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas.

Melissa had top sustained winds of 165km/h and was moving north-northeast at 22km/h according to the centre.

AS IT HAPPENED: Hurricane Melissa tears through Jamaica, makes landfall in Cuba

The hurricane was centred 72 kilometres north-west of Guantánamo, Cuba, and 330 kilometres south of the central Bahamas.

The agency warned that preparations for

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