Manila: More than 1,200 people were killed when one of the strongest typhoons to make landfall devastated the central Philippines, the Red Cross said on Saturday.
Rescuers struggled to reach far-flung areas a day after Typhoon Haiyan churned through the Philippine archipelago in a straight line from east to west.
The death toll is expected to rise sharply from the fast-moving storm, whose circumference eclipsed the whole country and which, on Saturday, was heading for Vietnam.
Among the hardest hit was coastal Tacloban in central Leyte province, where preliminary estimates suggest more than 1,000 people were killed, said Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross.
“An estimated 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban as reported by our Red Cross teams,” she said. “In Samar, there were about 200 deaths.”
Another 100 people were injured in the typhoon, which was still packing destructive winds capable of blowing away houses and uprooting trees.
Witnesses said bodies covered in plastic were lying on the streets. Television footage shows cars piled atop each other.
The airport was nearly destroyed as raging seawaters swept through the city, shattering the glass of the airport tower, levelling the terminal and overturning nearby vehicles.
“Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing,” said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.
Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, said more than 100 bodies were lying in the streets and another 100 were injured, according to the official.
He said messages from civil aviation authorities in Tacloban to the capital, Manila, had to be relayed through another airport in the central Philippines once every five hours to conserve radio batteries.
The Philippine television station GMA reported its news team saw 11 bodies, including that of a child, washed ashore Friday and 20 more bodies at a pier in Tacloban hours after the typhoon ripped through the coastal city.
At least 20 more bodies were taken to a church in nearby Palo town that was used as an evacuation centre but had to be abandoned when its roofs were blown away, the TV network reported. TV images showed howling winds peeling off tin roof sheets during heavy rain.
Ferocious winds felled large branches and snapped coconut trees. A man was shown carrying the body of his 6-year-old daughter who drowned, and another image showed vehicles piled up in debris.
Nearly 800,000 people were forced to flee their homes and damage was believed to be extensive.
Weather officials said Haiyan had sustained winds of 235kph with gusts of 275kph when it made landfall. By those measurements, Haiyan would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the US, nearly in the top category, a 5.
The typhoon’s sustained winds weakened on Saturday to 175kph with gusts of up to 210kph as it blew further away from the Philippines towards Vietnam.
In Vietnam, state media reported that several central provinces began evacuating some 300,000 people from high risk areas. The typhoon is expected to make landfall in the central region early on Sunday morning.
Because of cut-off communications in the Philippines, it was impossible to know the full extent of casualties and damage.
Southern Leyte Governor Roger Mercado said the typhoon ripped roofs off houses and triggered landslides that blocked roads.
The dense clouds and heavy rains made the day seem almost as dark as night, he said.
“When you’re faced with such a scenario, you can only pray, and pray and pray,” Mercado said by telephone, adding that mayors in the province had not called in to report any major damage.
“I hope that means they were spared and not the other way around,” he said. “My worst fear is there will be massive loss of lives and property.”
With inputs from agencies
