Miami: Hurricane Ike turned into an "extremely dangerous" category four storm in the Atlantic Ocean today with winds of 215 kilometres per hour, the US National Hurricane Centre reported.

"Ike becomes an extremely dangerous category four hurricane" on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the centre said in its latest advisory.

The powerful storm, the fifth hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season, was moving over the Atlantic far from any land and it was too early to predict whether "any land areas might eventually be affected," it said.

As of 0830 IST, the centre of Ike was located about 980 kilometres northeast of the Leeward Islands, moving west-northwest at 28 kilometres per hour, the centre said.

The storm was expected to move west over the west-central Atlantic over the next two days.
Source : PTI