Thousands evacuate as Hurricane Sandy threatens US East Coast

Hurricane Sandy is closing in on highly populated areas of the US east coast, threatening storm surges and devastating flooding.

In New York City, thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes and evacuation shelters have been set up in 76 schools.

Public transport has been halted and the New York Stock Exchange closed.

Forecasters fear Sandy will become a super-storm when it collides with cold weather fronts from the west and north.

It also coincides with a full moon, which is bringing higher tides.

Sandy has already killed 60 people after sweeping through the Caribbean in the past week.

Campaigning for the US presidential election has also been disrupted, eight days ahead of election day on 6 November.

This gives Barack Obama a chance to appear above politics and to look presidential – but any failure would be magnified, and problems tend to get blamed on the president”

At 08:00 EDT (12:00 GMT), Sandy was churning about 310 miles (505km) south-east of New York City, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said its maximum sustained winds were 85mph (140km/h) with higher gusts.

Hurricane force winds extended for 175 miles (280km) and tropical storm force winds for 485 miles (780km), the NHC added.

The vast hurricane, about 520 miles (835km) across, is moving slowly north-west and could linger over as many as 12 states for 24-36 hours, bringing up to 25cm of rain, 60cm of snow, extreme storm surges and power cuts.

At least 14 out of 17 people on board a replica of HMS Bounty – built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty – have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.

They were rescued from two life rafts off the coast of North Carolina after they were forced to abandon ship. The Coast Guard is searching for the remaining crew members.

The eye of the storm is expected to move across the coast of mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, the NHC said.

As it will hit the US East Coast just before Hallowe’en, it is being dubbed a “Frankenstorm”.

With emergencies declared in several east-coast states, many workers were staying at home on Monday.

New York City’s subway, bus and train services were suspended from Sunday evening, and schools are shut.

Taxi driver Peter Franklin told the BBC that the city was “shut down”.

“I feel like I am living in a science fiction movie,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas.