The storm is now heading westwards towards china.

Super Typhoon Mangkhut -- the biggest storm of the year -- smashed through the Philippines on Saturday, claiming its first victims as two women were killed when a rain-drench hillside collapsed on them and another drowned in Taiwan.

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The massive storm cut a swathe of destruction when it struck the northern tip of luzon island, threatening the lives and homes of roughly four million people.

As the powerful storm left the southeast Asian archipelago and barrelled towards densely populated Hong Kong and southern china, search teams in the Philippines began surveying the provinces that suffered a direct hit.

Mangkhut was packing sustained winds of 170 kilometers (105 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 260 km per hour as it left the Philippines.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

Thousands of people fled their homes in high-risk areas ahead of the storm's arrival because of major flooding and landslide risks.

In Taiwan, a woman was swept away by high waves caused by the typhoon.

The lifeless bodies of the two women in the Philippines were pulled from the soil of a hillside that collapsed after the storm's torrential rains.

The country's deadliest on record is super typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.