Authorities in Mexico said that at least eight people have been killed as Hurricane Grace swept onto Mexico’s Gulf coast as a major Category 3 storm and moved inland on Saturday.

The hurricane drenched the coastal and the inland areas in its second landfall in the Latin American country.

Although the storm seemed to have lost its strength while crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday, it rapidly grew stronger when it reached the relatively warm Gulf of Mexico before reaching the Mexican coast again late on Friday.

Cuitlahuac Garcia, the governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz said that at least eight people died ith the storm and three have gone missing after mudslides and flooding. He said there were children among the dead.

Garcia added that about 330,000 had been left without power due to the storm. He said that the power was shortly restored.

Veracruz authorities have said that evacuations are needed in some places due to overflow and landslides.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Grace quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it churned over mountainous areas in central Mexico east of Mexico City and then dissipated in mid-afternoon.