More than 10,000 evacuees sheltered in schools and evacuation centres in the Philippines on Monday as heavy rains and gale-force winds from Super Typhoon Ragasa lashed the country's far north.

The typhoon, which is gaining strength as it proceeds on a collision course with southern China, was expected to make landfall over the Philippines' Babuyan Islands around midday.

The sparsely populated islands lie about 740 kilometres (460 miles) south of Taiwan, where smaller-scale evacuations were also underway.

As of 11:00 am (0300 GMT), maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour were reported at the storm's center, with gusts reaching up to 265 kph as it moved westward towards the Babuyans, the national weather service said.

"I woke up because of the strong wind. It was hitting the w

See Full Page