Three fishermen are missing off Mexico's coast as Hurricane Marie churned powerfully in the Pacific Ocean.
The eighth hurricane of the eastern Pacific season, Marie briefly hit category five, the most powerful storm rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale, before calming slightly.
"Unfortunately, we have three missing fishermen," said Wenceslao Petit, director of civil protection in the tourist hub of Los Cabos.
Marines were searching for the three, who had gone out to sea on the Tio Chori with four others. The boat sank in the heavy waves caused by the storm, but four of the fishermen were able to swim to shore.
The civil protection agency has declared a state of emergency in the Los Cabos region.
Marie was packing maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h, according to the latest bulletin from US forecasters.
But the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) suggested the worst may be over, forecasting "some fluctuations in intensity" overnight, and "a general weakening trend" starting Monday.
Marie was far from land - some 765 km south-southwest of Mexico's Baja California peninsula - moving west-northwest at 19 km per hour.
No coastal storm watches or warnings were in effect, but the NHC warned powerful waves would slam parts of Mexico's coast.
"These swells are likely to cause extremely dangerous life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," the forecasters warned.
In Mexico, the national weather service said Saturday heavy rains threatened the states of Michoacan, Colima, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Jalisco and Nayarit, warning they could trigger mudslides and cause rivers to overflow their banks.
It urged the millions of people living in those states to "exercise caution" and to stay tuned for updates.
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