Hong Kong: At least eight people were killed and many are still missing after one of the strongest typhoons on record barrelled into the southern Chinese territory of Macau, wiping out power and water in large pockets of the world's biggest gambling hub.

Macau's government broadcaster TDM said typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, was the strongest since 1968.

"The city looks like it was just in a war," one civil servant, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said on Thursday.

Hato on Wednesday battered the financial hub of Hong Kong, uprooting trees, flooding streets, forcing hundreds of airline flights to be cancelled and halting financial trading. There were reports of 34 people injured in Hong Kong, which had not been hit by a category 10 typhoon for five years.