MANILA (AFP) ― The first typhoon of the Philippines’ brutal rainy season shut down the nation’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people across the country and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate.

Ferocious winds from Typhoon Rammasun tore roofs off houses, overturned cars and ripped trees out of the ground in Manila, as well as remote fishing villages hundreds of kilometers away.

“I thought I was going to die. I went out to look for gasoline in case we needed to evacuate, but it was a mistake,” said tricycle driver Pedro Rojas, 35, as he nursed a cut head while sheltering at a town hall on the outskirts of Manila.

“My tricycle rolled over twice after I slammed into sheets of rain. It was like hitting a wall ... huge tin roofings were flying everywhere.”

Falling trees, poles and walls killed at least 11 people across the northern parts of the Philippines that Rammasun swept over with wind gusts approaching 200 kilometers an hour, authorities said.

The national disaster management council reported five fatalities, while local authorities confirmed the six others to AFP.

One of those was a rescue worker who died in the capital when a government building collapsed on him, while falling trees killed two elderly people in rural areas of a province neighbouring Manila.

Rammasun, which in Thai means “God of Thunder,” tore in from the Pacific Ocean with wind gusts of about 250 kilometers an hour and smashed into poor fishing communities in the east of the archipelago on Tuesday night.

It weakened slightly as it cut across the main island of Luzon and exited into the South China Sea on Wednesday afternoon. Weather forecasters warned it may pick up strength again as it tracks towards southern China.

The eye of the storm just missed Manila, home to more than 12 million people, but the huge winds and bursts of heavy rain brought the city to a virtual standstill.

Power in many areas, including the business district of Makati, was cut just after dawn as branches were torn off trees and electricity lines snapped.

Manila’s power distributor, Meralco, said 90 percent of its customers had lost electricity, with similar problems reported in neighboring provinces.

Meralco did not give a timeframe for when power would be restored, and millions of people were left to struggle in hot and humid weather without electricity throughout the day.