Storm Eta batters Central America killing three

Video caption, Hurricane Eta lashes Nicaragua

Hurricane Eta brought torrential rain and high winds to Nicaragua as it made landfall in the Central American nation on Tuesday.

Two men were killed in when landslide buried the mine they were working in in Bonanza, on Nicaragua's north coast.

In neighbouring Honduras, a 13-year-old girl died in the city of San Pedro Sula when the wall of her home collapsed onto the bed where she was sleeping.

Eta has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

It first hit Nicaragua as a Category Four hurricane with winds of 140mph (225km/h) and torrential rains.

Image source, EPA

Image caption, Tens of thousands of people in Nicaragua left their homes for shelters before the storm hit

Image source, EPA

Image caption, The town of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi, was among the hardest hit

In the town of Puerto Cabezas, trees were uprooted and the perimeter walls of the baseball stadium was blown over, news agency AFP reports.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that although Eta has weakened, there remains the risk of life-threatening flash floods in parts of Central America that lie in the storm's path.

The centre of the storm was over northern Nicaragua on Wednesday, and the NHC forecast it would move across central Honduras on Thursday.

It was likely to continue to weaken as it moved over land, the NHC said, but would still produce tropical storm conditions close to its centre on Wednesday.

As well as the risk in Central America, the NHC warned of the possibility of flash flooding across a wider area taking in Jamaica, parts of Mexico, El Salvador and the Cayman Islands.