India on red alert as big storm approaches

India has issued a red alert as a powerful storm is expected hit the east coast, forcing authorities to rush to evacuate tens of thousands of people away from the country's eastern coastline.

Cyclone Phailin, which gathered speed of 240km per hour (kph) on Saturday, has the potential to be the strongest storm to hit the area in 14 years.

The Indian Meteorological Department said Phailin was expected to hit with maximum sustained winds of 210-220kph.

However, the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii forecast maximum sustained winds of 269kph with gusts up to 315kph.

Satellite images showed the cyclone filling nearly the entire Bay of Bengal, an area larger than France.

Officials cancelled holy day celebrations and stockpiled emergency supplies in coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh states.

In Bhubaneshwar, capital of Odisha, government workers and volunteers were putting together hundreds of thousands of food packages to be distributed at relief camps.

"I request everyone to not panic. Please assist the government. Everyone from the village to the state headquarters have been put on alert," Naveen Patnaik, Odisha's chief minister, said.

Authorities have already evacuated 40,000 people from 40 villages to government-run shelters, schools and buildings in five districts of Odisha and there were plans to take 100,000 more to safety, Surya Narayan Patra, Odisha's disaster management minister, said.

The government also began evacuating 64,000 people from the low-lying areas of three vulnerable districts in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, N Raghuveera Reddy, the state revenue minister, said.

Cyclones are a common occurrence in the Bay of Bengal at the end of the monsoon season, when sea temperatures are at their warmest.

A cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1970 killed hundreds of thousands of people.