Tourists flee as hurricane pounds Mexican resort

Howling wind and rain from Hurricane Emily lashed beaches in the Mexican resort of Cancun today, after thousands of tourists, many of them Britons, were evacuated from their hotels to improvised shelters at schools and gymnasiums.

Packing 145mph winds, Emily sideswiped Jamaica, where four people were swept away in a car, before taking aim at Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, where it whipped sand from the beaches, downed signs and toppled trees.