Death toll in Philippine typhoon rises to 33 (Roundup)

Jul 15, 2010, 9:57 GMT

Manila - The death toll in a powerful typhoon that battered the Philippines rose to 33 Thursday as rescuers found bodies of some missing fishermen.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said most of the fatalities from Typhoon Conson either drowned at sea or were hit by falling trees and debris.

Coast guard rescuers recovered seven bodies of fishermen whose boat capsized Tuesday off Mariveles town in Bataan province, 60 kilometres north-west of Manila.

Rescuers were still searching for three more fishermen.

The three were among 26 people still missing after Conson's onslaught. The number of missing has gone down from 59 after 33 people earlier reported unaccounted for were found to be safe.

Conson, which packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 150 kph, made landfall in the north-eastern province of Quezon late Tuesday.

The weather bureau said a weakened Conson was moving out of the country on Thursday on the way to southern China.

Among the fatalities was a 35-year-old mother and her 2-year-old daughter who were pinned down when a mango tree fell on their house in Trece Martirez City, just outside the Philippine capital.

The NDCC said close to 10,000 people were forced to flee their homes at the height of the typhoon, which uprooted trees, toppled electric posts, snapped transmission wires and caused power outages in most of Luzon.

Metropolitan Manila was at a standstill on Wednesday as fallen trees, electric posts and other debris littered the streets.

More than 3,000 houses were damaged by Conson and initial estimated damage to infrastructure and agriculture was at 22.29 million pesos (497,000 dollars).

Conson was the second typhoon to hit the country this year.

The Philippines is located within the so-called typhoon belt of the Pacific, with up to 20 cyclones sweeping through the country every year, killing hundreds of people.

Last year, close to 1,000 people were killed and nearly 10 million displaced after back-to-back storms caused the worst floodings in decades in Manila and landslides in northern provinces.