The death toll in Florida from Hurricane Irma rose to 58 last Tuesday [YouTube]

An Egyptian television host has claimed to have saved the lives of Florida residents living in the path of Hurricane Irma after she "changed the path" of the destructive cyclone.

An Egyptian television host has claimed to have saved the lives of Florida residents living in the path of Hurricane Irma after she "changed the path" of the destructive cyclone, prompting a storm of online mockery.

Lobna Ahmed, the host of a New Age spiritual programme on the private channel al-Hadath al-Youm, made the superhuman claims in the wake of the hurricane, which struck the Caribbean and Florida earlier this month.

"After the hurricane in Florida that happened last week, we have received lots of emotional feedback over a video we aired of a friend of ours who lives in Florida, asking us to help her before the storm hit," Ahmed said.

"She and her children were very scared because the storm was heading exactly towards them according to the forecast and was going to completely blow away her town."

"But thank God, we were able to slightly change the path of the storm and reduce its intensity, shifting its direction towards the Gulf of Mexico," she added.

Ahmed's comments have been mocked widely on social media.

The death toll in Florida from Hurricane Irma rose to 58 last Tuesday as cleanup crews removed debris caused by the powerful storm that struck the state on September 10.

Some 40 people were killed when Hurricane Irma marched across the Caribbean before lashing Florida.

A group of Syrian refugees responded to the hurricane by cooking feasts for victims.

Abeer and Nora al-Sheikh Bakri, two sisters, fled their homeland in 2012 and settled in Georgia four years later.

After witnessing the destruction, they drove an hour to the Hamzah Islamic Centre in the city of Alpharetta, where they were told 39 evacuees were staying.

They then prepared a range of traditional Middle Eastern dishes and refused to take any payment for the food.