HURRICANE Dean has hit Jamaica, forcing up to 5,000 British tourists to take refuge.

With both the island's main airports closed, holidaymakers had little choice but to hole up in resorts with hurricane-proof walls, or seek safety in converted shelters in Jamaican schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena.

The country declared a curfew and troops patrolled the streets as the Category 4 storm struck the Caribbean island, which was expected to inflict winds of 145mph, 20 inches of rain and eight to 13ft storm surges. The Foreign Office advised against all travel to the country until further notice and Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller made a last-minute plea for residents to abandon their homes and head for shelter.

After tearing through Jamaica, Dean was expected to bear down on the tiny Cayman Islands (see story below), where a curfew was imposed and 1,500 tourists were being evacuated. The Foreign Office advised against all travel to the country.

In the popular tourist resort of Cancun, in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, travellers packed the airport to flee the storm, and officials began evacuations along the country's Caribbean coast.

Forecasters predicted Cancun could avoid a direct hit, but Dean was forecast to become a Category 5 storm, with 160mph winds, before hitting a sparsely populated spot about 100 miles south of the resort later today or early tomorrow. Around 9,000 Britons are on holiday in the Yucatan Peninsula, the FTO estimated.

Dean has already devastated parts of the Caribbean, particularly in Martinique, Dominica and St Lucia. So far it has claimed at least eight lives.