25 dead as typhoon hits Philippines: officials

Source: AFP

BAGUIO, Philippines (AFP) — At least 25 people were killed and thousands displaced overnight as Typhoon Chan-hom raked the northern Philippines, officials said Friday.

The typhoon blew out into the Philippine Sea off the northeast coast of Luzon island early Friday after unleashing landslides, floods, and power cuts across the north of the country.

Among the worst-hit areas was the mountain town of Kiangan and nearby areas that were devastated by landslides, and the cape of Bolinao on the South China Sea coast that bore the full force of its landfall late Thursday.

"Bolinao -- well frankly speaking it's devastated," Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told reporters in Manila after a helicopter overflight of the coastal region swamped with floods and littered with downed pylons.



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