Aid workers have described deserted streets and scenes of destruction in the Philippines as a typhoon started to work its way across the country.

FILIPINOS are used to a seemingly never-ending pattern of storms, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions, but typhoon Haiyan is now officially one of the deadliest disasters to strike the country.

Rescuers are facing blocked roads and damaged airports as they struggle to deliver desperately needed aid to the typhoon-devastated Philippines.

Haiyan has made landfall in northern Vietnam as a tropical storm today, after leaving massive destruction in the Philippines.

Typhoon Utor lashed the central and eastern Philippines today, killing four people, including two toddlers, and forcing more than 90,000 people to flee to evacuation centres, officials said.