A powerful typhoon wrecked houses, caused towering tidal surges and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to emergency shelters as it cut across the northern Philippines on Sunday in the sixth major storm to hit the country in less than a month.

Typhoon Man-yi has left at least seven people dead in a landslide, destroyed scores of houses and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by multiple back-to-back storms.

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.

Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least eight lives.

Man-Yi is the sixth typhoon to hit the Philippines in a month, with at least 160 people known to have died in the five previous storms. The super typhoon already ripped through Cantanduanes, where it uprooted trees,

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine authorities issued an urgent appeal on Saturday for residents in low-lying areas and coastal towns to move to safety as super typhoon Man-Yi gained strength on its approach towards the country's main Luzon island.