Super Typhoon Haima: Philippines evacuates thousands

[Anthea]

Super Typhoon Haima: Philippines evacuates thousands in storm's path

Tens of thousands have been evacuated in the Philippines amid one of the country's worst-ever storms.

Super Typhoon Haima is battering the northern island of Luzon, where over 10 million people are within its reach.

President Rodrigo Duterte is visiting China, but said emergency services had been deployed.

"We only pray we be spared the destruction such as the previous times, which brought agony and suffering," he said.

The storm was upgraded to a super typhoon just before it hit, making landfall in Penablanca, a town in Cagayan province, around 23:00 local time (1500 GMT) on Wednesday.

"We can't go out because the wind is so intense, trees are being forced down," local councillor Elisa Arugay told DZMM radio from Camasi village in Penablanca.

Experts fear Haima could prove as destructive as the catastrophic super typhoon Haiyan, which claimed more than 7,350 lives in 2013.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37707593

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