The Philippines and Taiwan hunkered down Monday as Super Typhoon Ragasa delivered punishing winds and intense rainfall while lumbering east towards an eventual collision with southern China.

The storm intensified further as it moved northwest and was expected to make landfall on the sparsely populated Batanes or Babuyan islands by early afternoon, the Philippine weather agency said.

Maximum sustained winds were 205 kilometres per hour at the storm's center as of 11 pm Sunday (1500 GMT), with gusts reaching up to 250 kph as it moved toward the archipelago nation, the weather service said.

The Philippine government closed offices and schools Monday in Metro Manila and across 29 provinces.

Local officials "must waste no time in moving families out of danger zones", interior department Se

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