61 killed in Typhoon in northern Philippines

As many as 61 people were killed and 100 others injured in the northern Philippines due to heavy flooding and rains caused by Typhoon "Violeta", the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported Wednesday.

Storm-battered Oriental Mindoro was placed under a state of calamity as 80 people were reported still missing, the NDCC said.

Disaster officials said some 68,000 families in six provinces were affected by "Violeta." About 200 families displaced by the typhoon were taken to evacuation centers.

Damage to infrastructure reached 207 million pesos (3.7 millionUS dollars), to agriculture 122 million pesos (2.19 million dollars) and to fishery 53 million pesos (946,430 dollars), the NDCC said.

In Nueva Ecija and Aurora in the northern Philippines, 18 persons were feared dead while six others were reported missing after flash floods hit the provinces.

At least 14 persons were reported injured while 1,000 families were evacuated from 11 municipalities as 300 houses were destroyed.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, en route to Manila by way ofthe United States after attending a Pacific Rim summit in Chile and visiting Mexico, is monitoring the rescue operation, Philippine Press Secretary and Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye told local radio by telephone from Los Angeles.

According to official figures, an annual average of some 500 lives were killed as about 20 typhoons or storms hit the Southeast Asian archipelago every year.

Source: Xinhua