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 regained strength on Sunday afternoon, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds to the Philippines, hours after making landfall in a nation still recovering from a series of recent storms that killed more than 160 people and caused widespread damage.

Super typhoon Man-Yi swept across the Philippines' main island of Luzon on Sunday, threatening heavy rain in the capital region Metro Manila, after triggering more than a million evacuations and damaging buildings in several areas.