A super typhoon barreled toward the Philippines’ largest island on Sunday, as more than half a million people sought shelter from the latest in a string of powerful storms to threaten the country.

A potentially catastrophic super typhoon has made landfall in the Philippines - the sixth typhoon to hit the country in a month. Man-Yi, known locally as Pepito, touched down at 21:40 local time (13:40 GMT) with maximum sustained wind speeds of 195 km/h (121mph) along the coast of the eastern Catanduanes island, the state forecaster said.

Nearly 180,000 people in the central region of Bicol have been evacuated, data from the disaster agency showed. Man-yi, locally known as Pepito, would be the sixth tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in a month.