13 dead as super typhoon Mangkhut batters Philippines

MANILA: At least 13 people died and five others went missing as super typhoon Mangkhut hit the northern Philippines early Saturday, disaster officials said.

The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said two emergency responders died in a landslide in the Cordillera Administrative Region of Luzon Island and another girl apparently drowned in Marikina river in Metro Manila.

Secretary Francis Tolentino, presidential adviser for political affairs, told a local radio interview that four other people died in Cayapa, Nueva Vizcaya, including a two-year-old and an eight-month-old baby. “Their house was pinned by a tree,” Tolentino said.

The NDRRMC also said that four people were reported injured.

However, Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan said in an interview with a local television that his office received reports that five died and five others went missing in a landslide in Baguio City.

The local media also reported that a 13-year-old also died in another landslide in Itogon, Benguet.

The NDRRMC has yet to release an official casualty report on the typhoon.

Ricardo Jalad, the executive director of NDRRMC, admitted that the initial number of casualties will increase in the coming days.

More than 40 landslides have been reported in the Cordillera region and efforts are underway to clear the roads there, the NDRRMC added.

The typhoon also destroyed houses, toppled trees and displaced more than 60,000 in several villages in the northern Philippines.

The government is also restoring power supplies in areas that experienced power outages.

Nearly 5 million Filipinos have been affected by the typhoon, mostly farmers and fishermen from the provinces.

The super typhoon Mangkhut, which made landfall at 1:40 a.m. local time on Saturday in the northern Philippines, exited this Southeast Asian country on Saturday night.