See our latest coverage on Typhoon Mangkhut here.
Typhoon Mangkhut struck the Philippines early Saturday after thousands of people evacuated their homes to dodge the 550-mile wide storm as it roared across the Pacific with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour.
The ferocity of the typhoon in some ways eclipsed Hurricane Florence on the other side of the world, pummeling the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States with life-threatening rains.
The eye of Mangkhut, known as Ompong in the Philippines, made landfall on the northern island of Luzon, the country’s rice and corn growing heartland, where more than four million people are at risk, early Saturday around 1:40 a.m.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The storm captured moving in over the city of Tuguegarao, in the north-east
The world's strongest storm this year, Super Typhoon Mangkhut, is blasting the northern coast of the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain.
Reports say it broke windows and downed power lines on the island of Luzon before dawn.
More than four million people are directly in the path of the storm, which has winds of 200km/h (125 mph) and gusts reaching up to 330km/h.
Thousands have been evacuated amid warnings of 6m (20ft) storm surges.
Officials have warned of there may be "very heavy damage" to vulnerable structures.
They have raised alert levels to the second-highest - signal four - in Cagayan, northern Isabela, Apayao and Abra provinces.
The deadliest storm on record in the Philippines was Super Typhoon Haiya in 2013, which also sparked category four alerts.
It killed more than 7,000 people and affected millions.
What is the latest?
The typhoon made landfall at Baggao, in the north-east of the country, at about 01:40 local time on Saturday (17:40 GMT on Friday).
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Families are taking shelter from the storm in classrooms in the city of Tuguegarao
The storm - known locally as Ompong - is travelling north-west at about 35km/h (20 mph).
"In terms of strength, Typhoon Mangkhut is the strongest tropical cyclone of the year," the World Meteorological Organization said.
The typhoon is forecast to keep heading west, passing through Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon.
Hong Kong authorities have warned urged residents to stay indoors when the storm approaches, and weather experts say it may be the strongest tropical storm to hit the territory in decades.
Hong Kong authorities have warned urged residents to stay indoors when the storm approaches.
The typhoon is expected to weaken into a tropical depression by Tuesday.
How prepared are people?
Warnings have been issued in dozens of provinces, and sea and air travel has been restricted.
Flights have been cancelled, schools shut and the army is on standby.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption People in Aparri are tying down their roofs ahead of Typhoon Mangkhut
The authorities have also warned that heavy rains could trigger landslides and flash floods.
"We are really frightened," Delaila Pasion, who had fled her home, told AFP news agency. "They say it is so strong, we were too scared to remain."
"During previous monsoon rains, half of our house was destroyed so I wanted to take my grandchildren to safety," she told journalists.
The Philippines is routinely hit during the typhoon season.
In China, where the storm is predicted to hit late on Sunday or early on Monday, the authorities have raised storm alerts to "yellow", which is the second level on the four-tier warning system.
High-speed rail services have been cancelled in parts of the south, local media report.
Is global warming to blame?
The relationship between climate change and tropical storms is a complex one.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Officials are preparing food and supplies for affected residents
Typhoons and hurricanes form when air, heated by warm sea water, rises quickly.
As the air cools down again it is pushed aside by more warm air rising below it - causing strong winds and whipping up waves.
So as the temperature of ocean water goes up, we might expect the intensity of hurricanes to increase in future.
A hotter atmosphere can also hold more water, so this should allow hurricanes to dump more water on affected areas.
But there are so many factors that contribute to these events, it has been difficult to tease out clear trends from the data.
Calm before the storm
Howard Johnson, BBC News, Arparri, Luzon
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Thousands of people are being evacuated and placed inside shelters like these
Residents of this small, low-rise town say they've been through this before, they've seen other storms.
Farmers are working around the clock to harvest their rice paddies. They say the rice is still not ripe, but want to salvage what they can before this storm potentially devastates their fields.
Authorities have told people to move on. Some cars are leaving the area, bedding on the roof - but some people say they want to stay inside their homes to prevent thieves entering.
People seem to be very relaxed with the idea that a super typhoon is coming their way.
Ask a question
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Monster Typhoon Mangkhut has slammed into the northeastern tip of the Philippines, bringing torrential rains and battering winds that are expected to affect millions of people.
Mangkhut, also known as Ompong in the Philippines, made landfall at around 17:40 GMT on Friday (1:40am on Saturday, local time), according to the Philippine weather bureau, PAGASA.
The massive storm, which forecasters have called the strongest typhoon this year, blew in windows, hurled debris and knocked out power lines when it hit the main island of Luzon in the pre-dawn darkness.
It retained its ferocious strength on Friday, but gained speed while shifting towards a number of densely populated provinces, where a large evacuation was carried out earlier in the day.
In a press briefing at 18:00 GMT, PAGASA's senior weather specialist, Chris Perez warned that the storm surge could be between three to six metres high in coastal areas in the northernmost tip of Luzon.
The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center categorised Mangkhunt as a super typhoon with powerful winds and gusts equivalent to a category-5 Atlantic hurricane.
In comparison, Hurricane Florence, which is currently lashing the US East Coast, is classified as category 1 storm.
Mangkhut is packing winds of up to 205 kilometre an hour and gusts up to 255km/h, PAGASA said. But the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said maximum winds could reach 268km/h and wind gusts of up to about 324km/h.
The storm is estimated to be 900km in diametre covering the entire northern and central parts of Luzon. Combined with seasonal monsoon rains, it could bring heavy to intense rains that could set off landslides and flash floods.
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As of 15:30 GMT on Friday, the Philippines has raised the highest alert level in the northern provinces of Abra, Apayao, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Kalinga, the northern part of Isabel and the Babuyan group of islands. Those areas have a combined population of at least 3.7 million. But other neighbouring provinces are also expected to be affected, bringing that number to more than five million.
Mangkhut has already blasted through the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.
Even if the typhoon weakens after slamming ashore, the gusts will remain destructive, government forecaster Rene Paciente warned.
"It can lift cars. You can't stand, you can't even crawl against that wind," Paciente said at a news conference in the capital, Manila.
More than 15,000 people were evacuated in the northern provinces by Friday afternoon, the Office of Civil Defence was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. But the country's disaster management office said more than 30,000 have been evacuated.
Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Cagayan province, said at least 100 families, mostly from fishing and farming villages, had taken shelter in a school.
Mangkhut is the 15th storm to batter the Philippines this year. An average of 20 typhoons hit the country each year.
'Substantial damage'
Authorities are taking extra precautions as they draw comparisons with Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated central areas of the archipelago in 2013, and killed 6,300 people.
"My appeal is that we need to heed the advice of the authorities. Stay indoors," said presidential adviser Francis Tolentino, the government's main coordinator for disaster response.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it expects "substantial damage" in the Philippines.
Authorities readied bulldozers for landslides and placed rescuers and soldiers on full alert in the country's north.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he would consider seeking assistance from the international community over Typhoon Mangkhut if it "flattens everything".
Speaking at a news conference, Duterte said there is no need yet to seek foreign aid, and it would "depend on the severity of the crisis".
Hong Kong and other parts of south China as well as Vietnam are also in Mangkhut's sights and at risk of being hit during the weekend.
Social media users and radio commentators in Hong Kong said they were stocking up on food and supplies. The Hong Kong Observatory warned residents to prepare for the typhoon saying it posed a "considerable threat".
Five million could be hit by super storm as gusts of up to 255km/h are expected
Typhoon Mangkhut: Philippines braces for one of the strongest in its history
The Philippines is braced for one of the strongest typhoons in its history, as authorities evacuate families in their thousands, close schools and put rescuers and troops on full alert in the country’s north.
Five million people are expected to be affected by Typhoon Mangkhut, which experts have categorised as a super typhoon with powerful winds and gusts equivalent to a category-5 Atlantic hurricane.
By Friday morning, almost 10,000 people across three regions had been evacuated and 22 domestic flights cancelled. By the evening, strong winds had already downed trees in Tuguegarao, a city in the main northern island of Luzon, where almost all businesses had been shuttered and police were patrolling otherwise quiet streets.
Weather experts said the storm almost matched the strength of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and displaced more than five million in the central Philippines in 2013.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Huge waves crash into the coast in Taitung county, eastern Taiwan on Friday. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images
Mangkhut was on course to hit north-eastern Cagayan province early on Saturday local time. It was tracked on Friday about 250 miles (450km) away in the Pacific with sustained winds of 205km/h and gusts of up to 255km/h, Philippine forecasters said. Forecasts indicated that waves could climb to six metres on the coasts of Cagayan.
It was predicted to travel across the South China Sea and pass within 62 miles of Hong Kong on Sunday morning.
With a massive rain-cloud band 560 miles wide, combined with seasonal monsoon rains, the typhoon could bring intense rains that could trigger landslides and flash floods, the forecasters said. Storm warnings were raised in 25 provinces across Luzon, restricting sea and air travel.
Ricardo Jalad, the country’s civil defence chief, told an emergency meeting led by President Rodrigo Duterte that about 4.2 million people in Cagayan, nearby Isabela province and outlying regions were vulnerable to the most destructive effects near the typhoon’s 78 mile eye. Nearly 48,000 houses in those high-risk areas are made of light materials and vulnerable to Mangkhut’s winds.
CNN (@CNN) Video shows Super Typhoon Mangkhut tearing through Guam, in the western Pacific.
It has caused widespread flooding and power loss, with parts of the US territory still without electricity on Thursday morning. https://t.co/EhtUajxigs pic.twitter.com/JKMPvHpWBK
Across the north, residents covered glass windows with wooden boards, strengthened houses with rope and braces and moved fishing boats to safety.
Manuel Mamba, the governor of Cagayan, said that evacuations of residents from risky coastal villages and island municipalities north of the rice-and corn-producing province of 1.2 million people have started and school classes at all levels have been cancelled.
Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) #WeatherAlert: Isabela, Cagayan, and the northern part of Aurora are now under Signal No. 3 due to Typhoon #OmpongPH as of 8 am on Friday, September 14.
READ: https://t.co/8QBEv5bg7f pic.twitter.com/osuRF2ZhZw
“The weather here is still good but we’re moving them now because it’s very important that when it comes, people will be away from peril,” Mamba said.
A change in the typhoon’s track prompted authorities to rapidly reassess where to redeploy emergency teams and supplies, Mamba said.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Villagers secure a boat in Aparri, Cagayan province. Photograph: Francis R. Malasig/EPA
Duterte asked cabinet officials from the north to help oversee disaster-response work if needed, but told reporters it was too early to consider seeking foreign aid.
“It would depend on the severity of the crisis,” Duterte said. “If it flattens everything, maybe we need to have some help.”
The typhoon is approaching at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in Cagayan, a major agricultural producer, and farmers were scrambling to save what they could of their crops, Mamba said. The threat to agriculture comes as the Philippines tries to cope with rice shortages.
Officials said other northern provinces started evacuating residents from high-risk areas, including in northern mountain provinces prone to landslides.
Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) More than 43 million people could be affected by Super Typhoon #Mangkhut, predicted to be most powerful storm since records began and Hong Kong could take direct hit: https://t.co/b95L8TmTmo
The warning signs are everywhere. We must act on #climate.#ActOnClimate #energy pic.twitter.com/HzZyHYi7nm
Duterte cancelled his appearance at a missile test firing aboard a navy ship off northern Bataan province due to the approaching typhoon.
On Guam, where Mangkhut passed, residents dealt with flooded streets, downed trees and widespread power outages. Government agencies were conducting damage assessments and clearing roads, according to the Pacific Daily News. About 80% of the US territory was without power but it was restored by Thursday morning.
Mangkhut, a Thai word for the mangosteen fruit, is the 15th storm this year to batter the Philippines, which is hit by about 20 a year and is considered one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
Carmela Fonbuena contributed reporting
