A powerful typhoon has battered Vietnam's coastal provinces, with strong winds and rains felling trees and tearing the roofs off houses.

Schools and airports were closed and almost 600,000 people across the country were ordered to leave their homes ahead of Typhoon Kajiki's arrival on Monday afternoon in the coastal province of Ha Tinh.

One evacuee in Vietnam's Nghe An province told news agency Reuters he could see "waves as tall as two metres, and water [flooding] the roads around us", adding that it was "terrifying".

It comes less than a year after the country was hit by Typhoon Yagi - its most powerful storm in 30 years - which killed 300 people in Vietnam alone.

Vietnam's meteorological centre says the typhoon could trigger flash floods and landslides, and 400 communes across six provinces have been put on alert.