A deadly hurricane which has been tearing through the southeast Caribbean was expected to make landfall in Jamaica last night.

At least seven people have already been killed in the path of the storm across Grenada, Venezuela and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The director of the US National Hurricane Centre said the core of the “major hurricane” will pass near or over southern Jamaica bringing a “life-threatening” storm surge.

Jamaica’s information minister has told BBC that the government has put “everything in place to deal with a hurricane of this strength.”

Hurricane Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on Monday, before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. It peaked at winds of 165 mph (270 km/h)