(Reuters) -Melissa is now a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, the U.S. Hurricane Center said on Saturday.

The hurricane was located about 280 miles (450 km) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, packing maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph).

Melissa is expected to rapidly intensify during Sunday and expected to be a major hurricane when making landfall in Jamaica early next week, the Miami-based forecaster said.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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