Monitoring Desk
MANILA: The death toll from a tropical storm in the southern Philippines climbed swiftly to 133 on Saturday, as rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from a swollen river, police said.
Tropical Storm Tembin has lashed the nation’s second largest island of Mindanao since Friday, triggering flash floods and mudslides. Rescuers retrieved 36 bodies from the Salog River in Mindanao on Saturday, as officials reported more fatalities in the impoverished Zamboanga peninsula.
It was forecast to smash into the tip of the western island of Palawan late Saturday, the state weather service said.“The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there,” Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told media persons.
Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels to dig through mud and debris in a bid to recover bodies in Dalama, a farming village of about 2,000 people near Tubod, Parami added.
