Typhoon Rammasun has killed at least 10 people as it churned across the Philippines' eastern islands and hit the capital Manila, forcing the evacuation of 370,000 people.
The eye of Rammasun, the strongest storm to hit the country this year, passed to the south of Manila on Wednesday after cutting a path across the main island of Luzon, toppling trees and power lines and causing electrocutions and widespread blackouts.
A fireman helps a mother and her family evacuate from their house in Manilla. Photo: AFP
Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said there was minimal damage in the capital, but staff were trying to rescue people trapped by fallen debris in Batangas City to the south where two people were electrocuted.
At least four south-eastern provinces on Luzon declared, or were about to declare, a state of calamity, allowing the local governments to tap emergency relief funds, Reuters reports.
The storm caused surges to Manila Bay and prompted disaster officials to evacuate slum-dwellers on the capital's outskirts.
Financial markets, government offices and schools shut down on Wednesday. More than 200 international and domestic flights were cancelled.
Parts of the Philippines are still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, one of the biggest cyclones known to have made landfall anywhere. It killed more than 6100 people in November last year in the central provinces, many in tsunami-like sea surges, and left millions homeless.
Tropical Storm Risk, which monitors cyclones, labelled Rammasun a category two storm on a scale of one to five as it headed west into the South China Sea. Super typhoon Haiyan was category five.
However, it predicted that Rammasun would gain in strength to a category three storm within a couple of days once it was back out at sea, picking up energy from the warm waters as it headed for the Chinese island of Hainan.
Rhea Catada, who works for Oxfam in Tacloban, which suffered the brunt of Haiyan, said thousands of people in tents and coastal villages had been evacuated to higher ground.
Cars were pinned downed by uprooted trees in the capital. Photo: AFP
