Tropical storm Otto was downgraded from a hurricane on Wednesday but remained on a collision course with Costa Rica and Nicaragua, according to dpa. The storm is expected to make landfall on Thursday with winds of up to 110 kilometres per hour, Costa Rica's National Meteorological Institute said. The US National Hurricane Centre forecast the storm would gain strength and hit land as a hurricane, with sustained winds of over 120 kilometres per hour. It warned of "life-threatening" flash floods and mudslides across northern Costa Rica and southern Nicaragua. The governments of Costa Rica and Nicaragua declared a "red alert" ahead of the unusually late-season storm, which authorities said could dump as much as 300 millimetres of rain on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast and coastal islands, currently set for a direct hit. Costa Rica ordered 4,000 people to evacuate to safe shelter. Otto left at least three dead and more missing as it battered Panama with high winds and rain this week.
