MIAMI: Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean picked up strength late Friday and became a powerful Category 5 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Matthew was located 440 miles (710 kilometers) southeast of Kingston Jamaica and was packing winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour, making it the strongest storm on the NHC's 1-5 scale and most powerful since Hurricane Felix in 2007, the Miami-based monitor said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2016