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The death toll from a tropical storm in the southern Philippines climbed swiftly to 133 Saturday, as rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from a swollen river, police said with concerns the figure could rise as dozens remained missing.
Tropical Storm Tembin struck Mindanao, the archipelago nation's second-largest island Friday, triggering flash floods and mudslides that have since erased a remote village from the map.
Rescuers retrieved 36 bodies from the Salog River in Mindanao Saturday, as officials reported more fatalities in the impoverished Zamboanga peninsula.
The bodies were swept downriver from a flooded town upstream called Salvador, Rando Salvacion, the Sapad town police chief, told AFP. Authorities in Salvador said they had retrieved 17 other bodies upstream.
The Philippines is pummelled by 20 major storms each year on average, many of them deadly. But Mindanao, home to 20 million people, is rarely hit by these cyclones.
Floodwaters started ebbing over the island on Saturday, authorities said, adding that more than 12,000 of its 20 million residents have now fled their homes.
"The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there," Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told AFP by telephone.
Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels to dig through mud and debris in a bid to recover bodies in the farming village of about 2,000 people, Parami added.
Tembin struck less than a week after the devastating Tropical Storm Kai-Tak left 54 dead and 24 missing in the central Philippines.
The deadliest typhoon to hit the country was Haiyan, which killed thousands and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013. Tembin is expected to hit the tip of the western island of Palawan late Saturday, the state weather service said.
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