Scam warning amid appeal to aid supplies for Jamaica

A number of historic buildings have been reduced to rubble

People have been urged to donate through official channels if they want to support Hurricane-hit Jamaican communities after "several scams" have been set up.

Gloucester has been twinned with the Jamaican parish of St Ann for almost 40 years and the city is now rallying together to help those impacted.

Carole Francis-McGann, chair of Gloucester's St Ann Society, urged people to donate through "official channels" as she has been made aware of several scammers trying to trick people into donating to fake causes.

She added the country "looks like a war zone" after a category five storm with 185 mph (297km/h) winds battered the island.

At least 30 people in Jamaica have died and whole towns have been destroyed since the hurricane hit.

The St Ann Society is sending funds to help the Jamaican parish repair key buildings.

Mrs Francis-McGann, 81, who was born in Jamaica, still has some family there and said it will take the country "at least ten years to rebuild" with important historic buildings "completely flattened".

"It's like Gloucester Cathedral and Shire Hall being reduced to rubble," she added.

Councillor Ashley Bowkett, honorary president of the St Ann Society, said it is moments like this that the connection between the two places "becomes even more meaningful".

He added: "We grieve with you, and we stand beside you."

Louise Ashley was in Jamaica with her husband and a group of friends from Gloucester as part of a 60th birthday celebration.

Ade and Louise Ashley were part of a group of 17 holiday-makers from Gloucester who were on the island when Hurricane Melissa hit

They were some of the 8,000 British nationals that were thought to have been on the island when the hurricane hit.

To get home, Mrs Ashley had to take a six-hour bus journey across the island. She said it was "heartbreaking to see whole streets flattened".

She added that staff in the hotel had "lost everything, it was total devastation".