Seven people were wounded when Hurricane Wilma passed Playa del Carmen in southeast Mexico, local authorities said on Friday.

The hurricane lifted a gas tank and smashed it at a house, causing an explosion that burned the victims.

The eye of the mammoth storm moved over Mexico's Cozumel Island along the Caribbean coast and was expected to pound the area for two days.

It destroyed trees, electricity pylons, telephone poles, roofs and billboards in Playa de Carmen and Cozumel and caused serious flooding in Cozumel.

People on the island have been evacuated before the landing of the storm, local authorities said.

Wilma has already killed 13 people across the Caribbean. The torrential rains it brought rendered 360,000 others homeless in Cuba, although the hurricane has not hit the island directly.

Experts, however, said the storm might change course and go over Cuba after it leaves Mexico. The southeastern US state of Florida is another possible target.

Wilma is moving at seven kph but has winds of up to 230 kph and gusts as high as 285 kph, according to Mexico's Meteorological Service.

Mexico's state oil company Pemex said the storm would not affect crude production, because the company's maritime oil platforms are not close to the area affected by the hurricane.

The hurricane season this year is one of the worst in recent years. In August, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,200 people in New Orleans in southern United States.

Source: Xinhua