'Potentially catastrophic' Hurricane Otis heads for Mexico

A major Category 5 hurricane made landfall near Mexico's Pacific beach resort of Acapulco early Wednesday, threatening to wreak "catastrophic" damage, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Hurricane Otis was packing maximum sustained winds of 165 miles (265 kilometers) per hour when it came ashore, the NHC said.

The storm had rapidly strengthened to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as it neared land.