Hurricane Imelda hits Bermuda

Hurricane Imelda struck the Bermuda islands in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, with sustained winds of 155 kilometres per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The storm, classified as Category 2 on a five-step scale, is expected to move across the islands in the coming hours.

The hurricane centre warned of hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall up which could trigger flash floods. A dangerous storm surge with "large and damaging waves" is also forecast.

Earlier forecasts had predicted that Imelda would pass Bermuda without making landfall. The sudden change in course was linked to Hurricane Humberto, which passed Bermuda on Tuesday and influenced Imelda's trajectory, the newspaper The Royal Gazette reported.

Imelda had already caused heavy rains and flooding in the Caribbean on Monday. Two people were killed in Cuba's eastern provinces of Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on X.

Tropical cyclones form over warm ocean waters. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30.