Irma causes widespread havoc in the Caribbean as nine confirmed dead

Hurricane Irma has claimed the lives of nine people in the Caribbean as the category five storm wreaks havoc across the region, with the death toll expected to rise in the coming days.

Officials have said that the island of Saint Martin has been practically destroyed, and the storm is set to make its way north towards Florida, where the governor has called a state of emergency.

The storm is expected to barrel through the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, followed by the Bahamas on Friday.

Irma has been described as the most powerful storm to hit the Atlantic Ocean in over a decade, clocking in with sustained wind speeds of as high as 180mph.

Recently elevated to a category five storm, the highest level possible, it triggered a massive effort to evacuate residents from coastal areas in the affected countries, amid widespread power outages across, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin and many other areas.

The US is currently still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey last week, which is expected to leave clean-up costs of roughly $180bn in its wake.

However, the country’s National hurricane Centre said that Irma might be downgraded to a category four by the time it reached the Sunshine State.

The full extent of the damage wreaked by Irma was unlikely to be known until several days after the storm had subsided.