Super typhoon slams storm-hit Philippines

Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, started battering the country's northeastern coast ahead of landfall on Sunday, killing two persons, forcing the evacuation of more than a million people and prompting the defence chief to warn many others to evacuate to safety from high-risk villages before it's too late.

- Agencies

A villager drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when she was pinned by debris, officials said.

Fung-wong, which could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 1,600-kilometre-wide rain and wind band, approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central island provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.