(Reuters) - Hurricane Kirk, the fifth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic season was strengthening rapidly over the open Atlantic, the NHC said in its latest bulletin on Thursday.

The hurricane was located about 1,065 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, packing maximum winds of 90 miles per hour (150 km per hour), and was moving west, the NHC said.

(Reporting by Naveen Arul in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill)