Philippines battered by super typhoon Utor

MANILA - A powerful typhoon has battered the northern Philippines, toppling power lines and dumping heavy rain across mountains, cities and food-growing plains. At least one man was killed in a landslide and 45 fishermen were missing.

Typhoon Utor, described as the world's strongest so far this year, touched land in the mountainous eastern Aurora province with sustained winds of 109 miles (175km) an hour and gusts of up to 130mph (210kph).

Footage from ABS-CBN TV network showed a woman swept away by a raging river in neighbouring Isabela province. The woman waved her hands for help as she struggled to hang on to debris while being buffeted by huge waves in the muddy waters.

"We have no official report yet, and we do not know if up to this time she has not been rescued," said Norma Talosig, a regional civil defence director. She said the woman lived alone in a low-lying area in San Agustin town and refused to be evacuated.

In mountainous Benguet province, a 22-year-old man died on the way to hospital after he was pulled out from a landslide that hit the roadside canal he was clearing, said regional civil defence official Andrew Alex Uy.

The typhoon triggered waves of up to 2.5 metres (eight feet) and left scores of fishermen missing.

In northern Pangasinan province, 25 fishermen on board three boats failed to return home, said a provincial police spokesman, Senior Inspector Ryan Manongdo.

Twenty people from the eastern provinces of Catanduanes and Camarines Norte were also unaccounted for. Authorities were hoping they had taken shelter in coves and nearby islands, said Bernardo Alejandro IV, the egional director for the office of civil defence.

"I hope they're just waiting for the typhoon to pass and will show up as soon as the weather clears," he said.

As of Monday afternoon, the typhoon had crossed the Philippines's main northern island of Luzon and was off the country's north-west coast with winds of 87mph (140 kph) and gusts of 106 mph (170 kph), government weather forecaster Jun Galang said.

He said the typhoon may intensify over the South China Sea as it moves toward China. He said the storm carried a lot of rain but was moving fast, so the rainfall was not concentrated in one area. Utor was forecast to make landfall in Guandong, China, on Wednesday.

About 1,000 residents in the Bicol region of the central Philippines spent the night in shelters, while Aurora province was without power, the national disaster agency said. Radio stations reported roofs were blown off and a covered basketball court washed away in Dinalungan town.

About 1,100 travellers remained stranded as passenger and cargo ferries were grounded. Classes in towns and cities on the typhoon's path were suspended, including in Manila, the capital. Several domestic flights were cancelled.

Utor, the Marshellese word for a squall line, is the 12th of about 20 storms and typhoons expected to hit the Philippines this year.