Philippine rescuers searched for 40 people missing on Sunday after Tropical Storm Muifa cut through the country, sinking boats, causing landslides and blackouts and killing at least five, officials said.
Thirty-eight people were rescued from two vessels that sank in giant seas but another 25 small fishing boats and their crew remained missing around Mindoro island, south of Manila, the Office of Civil Defence said.
Meanwhile, four people drowned across the country — in the provinces of Quezon and Sorsogon, and on Mindoro and Catanduanes islands — while a 70-year-old man died of hypothermia.
Four people have also been injured, the Office of Civil Defence said. It said nearly 4 000 families in the eastern and central Philippines were displaced by the storm, and nearly 5 000 remained stranded in ports.
Telephone lines in the eastern provinces of Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Masbate and Sorsogon were down, but power was partially restored after a blackout.
Landslides were also recorded in Catanduanes, blocking main roads.
Muifa continued to move away from the Philippines and was heading towards Vietnam on Sunday morning, the state weather bureau said.
With strongest sustained winds of 110kph near the center and gusts of up to 140kph, Muifa is forecast to be 700km west-northwest of the island of Palawan by Monday, it said.
The 38 rescued sailors included 20 from a tugboat and barge that sank off Semirara island on Saturday, and 18 from a fishing vessel that sank off Mindoro. Nobody was missing after either incident. — Sapa-AFP