Typhoon Koppu has ripped off roofs, torn down trees and unleashed landslides and floods, forcing thousands to flee as it pummelled the northern Philippines.

No casualties were reported but more than 9,000 people were evacuated from their homes, civil defence officials said, with more expected to leave as the storm grinds inland across the main island of Luzon over the next three days.

A man rides a bike in Manila, Philippines, on Sunday. Photograph: Mark R. Cristino/EPA

Koppu pounded the remote coastal town of Casiguran and nearby areas with gusts up to 210kmh (130mph) an hour and heavy rain, remaining nearly stationary hours after making landfall there before dawn, the state weather service said.

“It looks likely this deluge will be with us for days,” weather forecaster Gladys Saludes told AFP, with the typhoon likely to leave Luzon, home to half the Asian archipelago’s 100 million people, only on Tuesday.

More than 8,000 people, or nearly a fourth of the town’s population, moved to evacuation centres in Casiguran, about 270km northeast of Manila, according to Nigel Lontoc, the deputy civil defence director for the region.

“Koppu tore off roofs of homes made of light materials. Rivers overflowed, and the roads to the area are blocked by downed power pylons and trees,” Lontoc told AFP, while the area was without power and communication lines.

A family seeks shelter under a plastic sheet in Manila. Photograph: Bullit Marquez/AP

Television networks aired footage of a hospital building with its roof ripped off near Baler, the provincial capital that draws surfers from around the world.

Lontoc also said the authorities cancelled a surfing competition in Baler for the weekend and ordered about 2,000 participants to remain indoors.

To the west across the Sierra Madre mountain range, nearly 800 other people evacuated in the farming town of Bongabon, he added.

The national disaster council in Manila reported landslides and floods elsewhere in northern Luzon, cutting off roads and bridges.



Filipino soldiers clear debris on a road in Munoz, north of Manila. Photograph: Francis R. Malasig/EPA

Its director Alexander Pama told reporters ferry services across the island were suspended amid rough seas while commercial aviation was also disrupted with 30 flights cancelled, two of them on international routes.

“I must emphasise that this is just the start. People must remain alert while we try to pick up the pieces in areas already hit,” Pama added.

Residents of communities in the typhoon’s expected path were hunkering down under darkening skies, said Kate Marshall, part of an advance reconnaissance team of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the region.

“There is a bit of debris around but nothing major as yet. The trees are beginning to sway a lot more,” Marshall told AFP from Solano town, about 100km inland.

“We have seen people checking roofs and putting stuff away. There are not that many people on the road.... I would say people are prepared,” she said, adding local officials have prepared evacuation centres in case they are needed.

Saludes, the weather forecaster, said that due to Koppu’s unusually slow pace, the mountainous areas and farmlands along river valleys in the area were expected to be pummelled by intense rain for days.



This could leave them exposed to floods and landslides, among other hazards, she said.

The weather service has also warned of storm surges, massive typhoon-generated waves smashing along coastal areas, but Saludes said there had been no reports of these so far.

Although the storm will not directly hit the capital, Manila, the weather service said it would affect a 600-kilometre swathe so that other regions were likely to be affected by strong winds and rain.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms each year, many of them deadly.

The deadliest and strongest on record, Super Typhoon Haiyan, destroyed entire towns in the central islands in November 2013, leaving more than 7,350 people dead or missing.