Typhooon Mangkhut lashes Philippines

  • 6 years ago
This is the dramatic moment Typhoon Mangkhut, also known as Typhoon Ompong, wreaked devastation across a mountain village after hitting the Philippines this morning.

The deadly storm - the equivalent of a category five hurricane - reached land, hitting Luzon island in the north of the country at 1:30am local time today (Saturday).

Video taken by terrified residents in Baguio City showed flood waters rampaging through the mountain village of Benguet at 11am local time.

Powerful winds can be seen blowing trees and sheets of rain across the scenery as the torrent of water creates a deafening crash across the valley.

The super typhoon made landfall early on Saturday morning.

Mangkhut or Ompong has been described as "more powerful" than Hurricane Florence in the US with sustained winds of 270 kilometres per hour (165 mph) and gusts as high as 325 kilometres per hour (200 mph), the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, according to meteorologists.

That makes it the most powerful storm on the planet this year.

Thousands of people have already been evacuated with at least five million people still in the path of the typhoon.

The Governor of the Cagayan region, Manuel Maamba, told local media that there are no reports of casualties.

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