26 dead from landslides after Philippine storm, say officials

Tropical storm Kai-Tak hit Philippines’ eastern islands of Samar and Leyte on Saturday.

Landslides triggered by tropical storm Kai-Tak have killed 26 people in the central Philippine island of Biliran, authorities said on Sunday, a day after the storm pounded the east of the archipelago nation.

Villagers wade through a flooded street in Brgy Calingatngan on Samar island, Philippines on December 16, 2017. (AFP)

“There is a total of 26 people dead from landslides in four towns of Biliran. We have recovered the bodies,” Sofronio Dacillo, Biliran provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer, told AFP.

Gerardo Espina, governor of the island province east of the much larger island of Leyte, gave the same figure for deaths in an interview on ABS-CBN television.