Songda, the third typhoon in a month to pound the Northern Mariana Islands, battered Pagan and Agrihan islands where just 33 people live. The islands are located at the northern end of the archipelago, which is a US territory.

Inhabitants were sheltering from the 193-kilometre-an-hour (120-mile per hour) winds in several World War II Japanese bunkers and caves, the territory's Emergency Management Office said.

Officials said there had been no reports of injuries and the main islands of Saipan and Tinian had so far escaped damage.

The Honolulu-based Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said Songda, named after a Vietnamese river, was headed toward the Japanese island of Okinawa and would then move north toward South Korea and southern Japan.

The Northern Marianas, a chain of 17 islands with around 80,000 people, lies some 2,400 kilometres south of Tokyo.

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