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The Philippines fears up to 1 000 people have been killed in landslides and flooding triggered by Typhoon Durian but officials said on Monday that many of the bodies might never be retrieved. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of national calamity after Durian, which was set to hit the Vietnamese coast on Monday.

Villagers in the central Philippines buried hundreds of relatives and friends in mass graves on Sunday as hopes faded of finding survivors from Typhoon Durian. Officials fear the death toll from Durian, which swept into the South China Sea on Friday, could reach 600 after torrential rain and winds of up to 225kph sent waves of mud crashing down an active volcano into nearby villages.

Distraught survivors searched piles of bodies for the faces of their loved ones in the central Philippines on Saturday after landslides triggered by Typhoon Durian left hundreds dead. Driving rain and winds of up to 225kph dislodged tonnes of mud and boulders from the slopes of Mount Mayon, an active volcano about 320km south of Manila.