Florida residents are rushing to finish emergency preparations - or just leave - as Hurricane Milton races toward landfall on the heavily-populated Tampa Bay.

Milton is currently a category five storm, packing ferocious winds of up to 165mph (270km/h). It is expected to hit with full force on Wednesday night, less than two weeks after the state was struck by the devastating Hurricane Helene.

President Joe Biden warned people in Florida on Tuesday to leave their homes as a "matter of life and death" while the state undertakes its largest evacuation effort in years.

"A category five, that is like a giant tornado coming at you," one resident of the Gulf Coast city of Bradenton told the BBC from the hotel that he has evacuated to in Kissimmee.