A hurricane with 150mph winds battered Jamaica last night after claiming at least eight lives as it tore through the eastern Caribbean.

Tourists fled, locals streamed inland and the Jamaican Prime Minister declared a state of emergency before Hurricane Dean arrived in the capital, Kingston, late last night, after pounding the eastern end of the island.

Fallen trees and telegraph poles blocked the capital’s streets as heavy rains fell. Roofs were ripped off and one man was missing after trees came down on his house. Mudslides were reported in several parts of the island.

Many residents of areas around Kingston ignored the plea by the Government for them to go to shelters, fearing that their possessions would be looted. “Too much crime in Kingston. I’m not leaving my home,” Paul Lyn, a resident of Port Royal, east of the capital, said.

Forecasters predicted that the storm, about 700 miles (1,130km) wide, could dump at least 20in (50cm) of rain and bring mass flooding.

Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, was on course to become a rare and potentially catastrophic top-level Category 5 storm. It is expected to hit the lowlying Cayman Islands, a British territory and financial tax haven, today. A compulsory evacuation order from Little Cayman was issued yesterday.

As it approached Jamaica, the hurricane lives in the Lesser Antilles. Two people were killed on Martinique, a woman and her son died in a landslide on Dominica, a teenage boy was swept to sea in Santo Domingo, and a man drowned in a river on St Lucia while trying to save a cow. Two people died in Haiti and ten were missing.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is advising against all nonessential travel to Jamaica. It said: “We now advise against all travel to Jamaica until further notice. Both international airports (Norman Manley in Kingston and Sangster in Montego Bay) closed on the evening of Saturday. There will be no flights in or out until airports reopen after the hurricane passes.”

It also told visitors to stay away from the sea for fear of storm surges.

According to the Federation of Tour Operators, about 4,000 Britons are listed as travelling with large tour operators in Jamaica, and most are believed to have sought shelter on the island to ride out the storm.

The Jamaican authorities cut off the island’s electricity supply before the storm hit. The National Water Commission turned off many water pumps, especially in areas prone to flooding.

The last hurricane to hit Jamaica was Ivan in September 2004, killing 17 and destroying thousands of homes.

A 48-hour curfew was imposed and all shops and businesses were ordered to shut until tomorrow. Portia Simp-son-Miller, the Prime Minister, called for a halt to campaigning for the general election on August 27.

Although many tourists flew home, Nicola Madden-Greig, spokeswoman for the Jamaica Hotel Association, said that some tourists, unable to get a flight or curious enough to witness a hurricane, were still in many hotels.

Meanwhile, the US space shuttle Endeavour hastily departed from the International Space Station after being ordered back to Earth a day early amid fears that the storm could damage its mission control centre in Houston. It will now land tomorrow.

Dean could strike the Texas coast on Wednesday. President Bush, with memories of the Hurricane Katrina debacle of 2005 still fresh, signed a preemptive disaster declaration yesterday, allowing the Federal Government to move people, funds and supplies into the state. Fuel tankers were sent to coastal areas, storm-response task forces were put on alert and supply lorries were put on standby.

Energy companies were tracking Dean nervously, with the storm expected today to enter the Gulf of Mexico, which has 4,000 oil and gas platforms. Hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, including Katrina, toppled scores of oil rigs. Oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated to Galveston, Texas.

The Foreign Office advised against all nonessential travel to the Yucatan peninsula. The authorities in the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Can-cún and the Riviera Maya, requested that no more tourists arrive until the hurricane had passed.

A spokesman for First Choice holidays said that the company’s next flight to the region was bound for Jamaica on Tuesday, when the hurricane is expected to have moved away from the island. David Marshall, a spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents, said: “We advise people due to fly out to the area to contact their travel agent, tour operator or airline and they will be able to advise on the current situation.”

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