Weather forecasters say a typhoon that swept through the southern Philippines this week, killing hundreds of people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, has turned back towards the islands.

The Philippine state weather service said Saturday that Typhoon Bopha would slam into the northern tip of the main island of Luzon overnight from Saturday into Sunday with wind gusts of up to 160 kilometers an hour.

Typhoon Bopha smashed into the southern province of Mindanao Wednesday, killing more than 500 people and leaving about that many missing. More than 300,000 people have been left homeless.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino flew to the southern island Friday to survey the damage and meet with many of the victims living in shelters.

In the town of New Bataan, which was nearly leveled, Mr. Aquino told the dazed residents that the government wants to find out what happened and how to prevent such devastation from happening again.

Many areas are still inaccessible because of washed-out roads, destroyed bridges and power outages from the storm, which brought powerful winds and heavy rains to the area beginning Tuesday.

By Thursday, the storm had moved west of the country into the South China Sea, before looping back to aim at the northern Philippines