Sawt Falasteen - Tropical storm triggers landslides in Philippines, 11 dead

Tropical Storm Yagi brushed past the Bicol region southeast of Manila overnight Sunday and was expected to make a landfall later Monday on the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon.

As a precaution, schools and government offices across the capital Manila were shut for the day, while ferry services in affected areas were suspended and 29 domestic flights cancelled due to the weather.

Three people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a landslide Monday in Antipolo, near the equally rain-soaked capital, city information officer Relly Bonifacio told AFP.

He said the bodies of four other people, all drowning victims, were recovered Monday in three other areas of the hilly community, hours after creeks overflowed overnight.

The Bicol city of Naga was also hard-hit, with a man electrocuted as floodwaters rose and a baby girl drowning, rescuers said.

"The floods were above head height in some areas," Joshua Tuazon of the city's public safety office told AFP, adding that hundreds of residents had been rescued.

More than 300 people remained at evacuation camps Monday, with local officials saying the floodwaters in the city of 210,000 people were slow to ebb.

Two landslides killed two people and damaged five houses in the central city of Cebu on Sunday, the local disaster office there told AFP.

Yagi tore northwards off the coast of Luzon on Monday afternoon with sustained winds of 85 kilometres (53 miles) an hour, up from 75 kilometres an hour earlier in the day, the state weather service said in an updated bulletin.

It was due to make landfall in the northern province of Isabela later in the day, with four towns and about 33,000 people in its path.

Local officials were advised to prepare communities to evacuate flood-prone areas, provincial disaster chief Constante Foronda told AFP.

The weather service also warned of a "minimal to moderate risk" of huge coastal waves threatening communities as the storm hits land.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST