Manila - Rescuers in the Philippines
searched on Sunday for survivors of a storm that triggered
floods and landslides and killed about 200 people, left scores
missing and thousands homeless, most of whom apparently ignored
warnings to move to safety.
Misery in the largely Christian Philippines was compounded
by the death of at least 37 people in a shopping mall fire,
officials said on Christmas Eve.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons a year and
warnings are routinely issued, but the level of destruction
wreaked by tropical storm Tembin on the southern island of
Mindanao from late on Friday came as a surprise.
"The figure could increase as we continue to received
reports from the field as the weather improves," said a police
spokesman on Mindanao, Superintendent Lemuel Gonda, referring to
the death toll.
"We are slowly restoring power and communications in
affected areas."
Disaster officials said 159 people were listed as missing
while about 70,000 had been forced from their homes.
Soldiers and police joined emergency workers and volunteers
to search for survivors and victims, clear debris and restore
power and communications.
Disaster officials said many villagers had ignored warnings
to leave coastal areas and move away from riverbanks, and got
swept away when flash floods and landslides struck.
The storm was moving west on Sunday, over some outlying
Philippine islands and the South China Sea towards southern
Vietnam, at a speed of about 20 kph (12 mph).
It intensified into a typhoon with winds of 120 kph (75 mph)
as it moved out of the Philippine area of responsibility, the
national meteorological agency said.
The United Nations was ready to help the Philippines, a
spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a
statement.
Last week, 46 people were killed in the central Philippines
when a typhoon hit. In 2013, super typhoon Haiyan killed nearly
8,000 people and left 200,000 families homeless.
The south of the Philippines has been plagued by
insurgencies by communist rebels and Muslim separatists for
years, as well as often bearing the brunt of tropical storms
roaring in from the Pacific.
The region was hit by another disaster on the weekend when
fire swept through a shopping mall in the city of Davao, killing
at least 37 people, most of them workers at a call centre, city
government officials said.
The vice mayor of the southern city of Davao, Paolo Duterte,
said the chance of survival for any of the 37 people missing at
the NCC Mall was "zero".
A fire rages at a shopping mall in Davao City, the Philippines. Picture: Xinhua
The fire broke out on Saturday at a furniture shop on the
mall's third level and quickly engulfed an outsourcing business
on the top floor, said a spokeswoman for the city government,
Ma. Teresita Gaspan.
The cause was not known but an investigation was being
launched as authorities searched for the bodies of the victims.
President Duterte and his daughter, Sara Duterte, who is
mayor of the city, visited the scene late on Saturday to meet
anxious relatives of the missing and survivors.