Four dead as super typhoon hits the Philippines

At least four people have been killed as the strongest typhoon in the world this year and possibly to ever hit land battered the Philippines. 

Two people were electrocuted by power lines toppled by the cyclone while a third victim was struck by lightning, Reynaldo Balido, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told the AFP news agency on Friday.

Of the seven people injured, one was hurt in the lightning incident, while the rest were struck by falling objects, he told a news conference.

A man is also missing after he was swept off a bank in the central port of Cebu, AFP reported. 

The death toll is expected to rise, with authorities unable to immediately contact the worst-affected areas and Haiyan only expected to leave the Philippines in the evening.

"The winds were so strong that they flattened all the banana plants around the house," university student Jessa Aljibe, 19, told AFP by telephone from the Samar city of Borongan shortly after Haiyan made landfall.

Power and communications in the three large island provinces of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were almost completely down but the government and telephone service providers promised to restore them within 24 hours, said Reuters.

Authorities warned that more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of Cebu City, which has a population
of about 2.5 million, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.2-magnitude quake last month.

The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii said Haiyan generated wind gusts of 379 kilometres an hour on Friday morning.

The local weather bureau had a lower reading, saying the storm's speed at landfall had sustained winds at 234kph, with gusts of 275kph. The bureau takes measures based on longer periods of time.

Aquino also assured the public of war-like preparations: three C-130 air force planes, 32 helicopters and 20 ships were on standby.

"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we're united,'' he said in a televised address.

Edgardo Chatto, governor of Bohol island province in the central Philippines, where an earthquake in October killed more than 200 people, said soldiers, police and rescue units were helping displaced residents, including thousands staying in small tents, move to shelters. 

Bohol is not forecast to receive a direct hit but is expected to be battered by strong winds and rain, government forecaster Jori Loiz said.