Patricia, one of the strongest ever hurricanes, crashed into western Mexico with rain and winds of up to 266 kilometres per hour, hammering coastal areas but weakening rapidly and causing less damage than feared.

Mowing down trees, flooding streets and battering buildings, Hurricane Patricia hit Mexico as a category five storm on Friday evening before grinding inland.

It rapidly lost power in the mountains that rise up along the Pacific coast and was downgraded to a tropical storm by Saturday morning local time.

So far, it appeared that major damage had been averted because the powerful storm did not hit large population centres.