GUAM - A Category 4 typhoon hit Guam on Thursday, packing winds of up to 225kmh and torrential rain, as it inched across the Western Pacific Ocean, but there were no early reports of deaths or injuries.

The slow-moving storm, dubbed Super Typhoon Mawar, delivered rainfall of up to 5cm per hour overnight, the US National Weather Service (NWS) said. Wind speeds placed the storm in Category 4, the second-strongest designation on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Moving north-west, Mawar could produce landslides, flash flooding and life-threatening storm surge, the NWS said in a series of warnings for the tropical island, located across the international date line about 9,600km south-west of Los Angeles.

“I’m very worried for our people’s safety and very concerned,” Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero told National Public Radio during an interview on Wednesday.

She compared the storm with the 1962 storm Typhoon Karen that flattened much of the island, a US territory with a population of about 170,000, including about 10,000 US military personnel.

According to early reports, Mawar has damaged houses and forced the rescue of eight people, said Ms Guerrero.

Images posted on social media showed ominous clouds drifting over beaches, rains lashing buildings and winds bending palm trees.

“Lots of us have relocated to the basement. All the units totally flooded, several windows blown out, and the building is shuddering from the wind,” said Twitter user Ginger Cruz, who posted a video of winds overturning a pickup truck outside her home.

US President Joe Biden, who has approved an emergency declaration authorising federal assistance for Guam, was briefed on the typhoon, White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.

“The White House is in close contact with the government of Guam and has offered as much support as needed to this tragic, tragic major storm,” Ms Jean-Pierre said. REUTERS