Irma does 'critical' damage to UK island

Hurricane Irma has inflicted "severe and in places critical" damage to the British overseas territory of Anguilla, the The UK government says.

Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan says the Caribbean island took the full force of the category-five hurricane.

He told MPs on Thursday the British Virgin islands had also suffered "severe damage".

On another British territory, Monsterrat, the damage was "not as severe as first thought".

Duncan said the hurricane was expected to hit another British overseas territory, Turks and Caicos, later on Thursday.

Britain has dispatched a Royal Navy ship carrying marines and army engineers to the affected islands.

Duncan said there were "unconfirmed reports of a number of fatalities" as a result of the hurricane.