Philippine authorities have begun evacuating thousands of people and shut down dozens of ports as a strong typhoon threatened to hit the country's east coast on Christmas Day.
Nock-Ten, locally known as Nina, is expected to be packing winds of between 203-250km/h when it crosses over Catanduanes, a remote island of 250,000 people in the Bicol region, late tomorrow, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.
It is then expected to hit the country's main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, on Monday.
The evacuations came as civil defence officials in the area said that hundreds of thousands of residents were under threat from the approaching typhoon.
The Philippine weather service warned of potentially deadly two-metre) waves along the coast, as well as landslides and flash floods from heavy rains.
Seafaring vessels in the area were ordered to stay at port, while one airline cancelled 18 Christmas-Day flights to and from Bicol airports.
In Manila, the civil defence office ordered huge roadside advertising billboards to be pulled down in case they were toppled by strong winds and hurt people on the ground.
Nock-Ten, named after a bird found in Laos, is arriving later than the usual typhoon season in the Philippines.
The most powerful and deadliest typhoon to hit the country was Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missing and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.
