Monterrey: Strong winds have killed three people, left hundreds of thousands without electricity and forced the closure of at least two ports in northeast Mexico, officials said.

The powerful winds - with gusts greater than 100 km per hour - were strongest in the states of Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, whose capital Monterrey suffered extensive material damage.

Some 400,000 people in Monterrey were left without power after seven power lines were damaged by the storm, Nuevo Leon's deputy government secretary said.

In the state of Tamaulipas, the ports of Tampico and Altamira remained closed and people were prohibited from entering the water at Miramar beach despite the presence of thousands of tourists for the Easter holidays.

Coahuila state's deputy secretary of Civil Protection Segismundo Doguin Martinez said that some 150 people were working to extinguish a fire in the Sierra de Arteaga, a forested area in the southeast of the state.

Source : IANS