Asia

Asia

Philippines floods, landslides leave 42 dead, dozens missing

29 October 2022 19:36 (UTC +04:00)

Philippine search and rescue teams pulled bodies from water and thick mud on Friday, bringing to 42 the death toll from flooding and landslides triggered by a storm, with dozens more feared buried, APA reports citing Reuters.

Eleven bodies were retrieved in the southern province of Maguindanao, which was hit hard by approaching tropical storm Nalgae, said Naguib Sinarimbo, interior minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao (BARMM).

Rescue and retrieval operations are temporarily suspended overnight and will resume Saturday morning, Sinarimbo said, as more people were feared still trapped under mud and flood waters, particularly in the town of Datu Odin.

"Based on the assessment on the ground, at that specific site, there were many (who got buried). The number might hit 80, but we are hoping it won't reach that number," Sinarimbo said via phone.

Authorities have evacuated thousands of people out of the path of Nalgae, which could possibly make landfall Friday night in Samar province in central Philippines, disaster officials said.