Hurricane Melissa lashed a petrol station in Jamaica as flooding spread across the island.

Terrifying footage shows violent winds battering the gas pump in Black River on October 28, reducing visibility along the street.

Superintendent Coleridge Minto, head of the St Elizabeth Division, confirmed that the road leading to Black River Hospital was blocked on Tuesday.

Authorities added: 'As a result, we are currently housing several residents at the police station as we continue to go above and beyond to keep residents and visitors to our island safe.'

Melissa made landfall on Jamaica's south-western coast around 1 pm ET on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre described the situation as 'extremely dangerous and life-threatening'. It is now passing through the Bahamas as a Category  1 hurricane after previously making landfall in Cuba.

The freak weather has left at least 34 fatalities, including 25 in Haiti, after a river burst its banks. Eight deaths were reported in Jamaica, and at least one in the Dominican Republic.