A policewoman helped a housewife give birth as Super Typhoon Man-yi battered homes in the Philippines.

Patrolwoman Cahreil Ann Tabirara was making rounds during the storm when she was notified that a pregnant resident nearby had gone into labour in San Andres town in Catanduanes province, on the morning of November 17.

Cahreil, a registered nurse and midwife, trekked through a muddy rural road strewn with fallen branches to reach the home of housewife Chona Timola, 30, in the Barangay Datag neighbourhood of the town.

The officer arrived in the shabby single-storey concrete home, where she found Chona lying on a mattress on the floor.

Cahreil said: 'We immediately went to the place but our police car couldn't enter because the road was too narrow. We walked 300 metres. When we arrived at the house, the child was already crowning. I immediately helped the mother give birth. I didn't heistate because I also have experience handling childbirth.'

Chona's husband shone a flashlight as the hero cop safely delivered the newborn boy who weighed 7 lbs (3 kgs). The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office later arrived to take Chona and her son, who was named Mark Cyrus, to the hospital.

The grateful mother said: 'I thank the police for helping me deliver my son.'

Man-yi, known locally as 'Pepito', made landfall as a super typhoon on Catanduanes island late November 16 evening with maximum sustained winds of around 120 miles per hour. At least eight people were killed.

Philippine weather agency PAGASA said the cyclone weakened as it moved across the Luzon island landmass. It has left the Philippine storm monitoring zone on November 18 afternoon.

The Catanduanes provincial government reported that 70,000 residents were preemptively evacuated from their homes.

Man-yi is the sixth major storm to pound the Philippines in a month. Five other storms had sliced through the northern and eastern regions of the country, killing at least 163 people and wiping out farmlands and coastal homes.

The Philippines experiences frequent and intense storms especially during the typhoon season from June to November, due to its location in the Pacific typhoon belt. These storms often bring heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding that cause significant damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and communities.