Streets were awash in Cabo San Lucas

Hurricane Marty has killed at least three people on Mexico's Pacific Coast, as it swept across the Baja California peninsula on Monday night.

Power and water supplies were disrupted, as winds of up to 140km/h (90mph) and heavy rain caused flooding in coastal resort towns.

Marty was about the same strength as Hurricane Isabel, which hit the US East Coast last week, killing at least 28.

But now Marty has been downgraded to a tropical storm, as it continues north-east and out to sea again.

One man was killed in the coastal town of Cabo San Lucas, when high winds tore the roof off his wooden home.

Another man died when a tree fell on his lorry, and a third was reported dead when his car was swept away by a flash flood, with the fate of his passengers unclear.

Hundreds of homes have been flooded in the capital of Baja California Sur state, La Paz, where boats were swamped by high waves in the town's harbour.

The peninsula is popular with American tourists, and a number of hotels had to switch to generators or use candles as power supplies failed.

"It was a horrible, ugly sound. Even though we live in the path of hurricanes, you never get used to that sound," said Wenceslao Petit, the head of the civil protection agency in the resort of Los Cabos.

Several thousand people were moved to emergency shelters as Marty blew in.

Airports were closed, and flights cancelled, and there are now fears of mudslides caused by up to 20cm (eight inches) of rain.

Marty is the second hurricane to hit Baja California in less than month.

At the end of August, Hurricane Ignacio left two people dead when their car was carried away in a flood-swollen river.