Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect in parts of North Carolina as the US East Coast braces for life-threatening rip currents from Hurricane Erin.

The Category 4 hurricane pelted parts of the Caribbean with 130mph winds on Monday as it moved north west, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

The intense storm, which reached Category 5 on Saturday, was forecast to gain strength before gradually weakening, but it is expected to remain a major hurricane into midweek.

At 5am on Monday the storm was around 105 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk Island and about 915 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

While Erin is not expected to make landfall on the islands, it is expected to bring rainfall of up to six inches to the Turks and Caicos and the eastern Bahamas.