Hurricane Otto, a powerful storm packing winds of 175 kilometers (110 miles) per hour, moved onto land in southeast Nicaragua on Thursday, an emergency services official in neighboring Costa Rica said.

The eye of the compact Category Two hurricane made landfall on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, south of the city of Bluefields and close to the Costa Rican border, the operations chief for the National Emergencies Commission, Walter Fonseca told the Teletica television station.

Rain and high winds radiating out from the center of the hurricane were to be felt over both sides of the border, where evacuations and emergency preparations have been made.