Thousands of tourists remain stranded, with airports closed after the storm battered the Caribbean island before heading to Cuba, Maryam Zakir-Hussain reports

The UK will provide £2.5m in emergency humanitarian funding to Jamaica, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has announced. UK relief supplies and technical experts have also been deployed to assist with the disaster response and recovery from the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa has left at least 34 people dead and caused widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica

Thousands of British tourists remain stranded in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, unleashed “catastrophic winds” and “flash flooding” as it slowly passed over the country. Up to 8,000 UK citizens were ordered to shelter from the world’s strongest storm of the year so far.

This week’s Category 5 storm swept the Caribbean, damaging hotels from Montego Bay to Nassau and stranding thousands as airports shut and power lines fell.

Now, as a weakened category 2 storm, there have been some impacts felt in the Bahamas, with Melissa tracking toward Bermuda on Thursday. Beyond that, as can be fairly typical, Melissa will weaken so that it will no longer be a hurricane or tropical storm as it moves into the North Atlantic.