Mexico is due to bear the brunt of the storm

In neighbouring Belize some 5,000 residents and foreign tourists fled Ambergris Caye and the island of Caye Caulker.

The storm is expected to grow in intensity in the next few hours and Yucatan is bracing for up to 20 centimetres (12 inches) of rain.

Authorities in Quintana Roo have erected about 1,200 shelters to accommodate tourists holidaying at its resorts.

About 30,000 tourists are on holiday in Cancun but Chantal is not expected to hit the resort hard.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast that Chantal could blow for three days or more and warned that it could develop unpredictably.

People on the Mexico/Belize border are taking no chances

It is currently expected to become a Category One hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures storm intensity.

Category Five is the highest on the scale.

Jamaica got off lightly when Chantal skimmed its southern edge early on Sunday.

But two people were killed in Trinidad three days earlier when they were struck by lightning.