A storm which ripped through the Philippines' central and southern regions may have killed as many as 350 people, most of them in an area known as "paradise island", officials have said.
At least 115 bodies have been recovered in four provinces while 234 people were missing and feared dead on the southern island of Camiguin, regional civil defence director Mr Casiano Matela said.
"They are buried under three metres of mud. I think they are all dead," Mr Matela said, referring to people missing on Camiguin where rescue teams continued their search, fighting the stench of corpses.
The Camiguin Governor, Mr Pedro Romualdo, wept in front of reporters, saying he felt most sorry for the many children who had died. A day after a river of mud and boulders tumbled down from the hills and flattened hundreds of houses on Camiguin, tropical storm Lingling ripped through the central Visayas region, starting more floods and landslides.
Cities and towns in the region were plunged into darkness and a tunnel in Asia's largest copper mine on Cebu island collapsed, killing 11 workers.
Thousands of villagers fled their homes early on Wednesday when the storm struck Camiguin - dubbed "paradise island" for its white beaches, waterfalls off volcanic cliffs and rustic lifestyle.
The storm pummelled the central islands of Cebu, Panay and Negros yesterday and was expected to hit Palawan island in the west today before heading across the South China Sea towards Vietnam, the weather bureau said. "We expect the number of dead to rise as rescuers keep on digging for more bodies," said Mayor Benedicto Castanarez of Mahinog town on Camiguin.
"We have to bury them immediately because they will cause an epidemic," he said.
Heavy winds felled coconut trees in Hubangon village in Mahinog, blowing them across roads and onto houses. Walls of mud boulders the size of cars smashed into the village.
Of some 200 houses in the village, only about 10 still stood. In one part of the village, only parts of furniture - a broken sofa and cabinet - showed people had once lived there.
North of the Philippines, a Panamanian-registered foreign cargo vessel carrying logs from Indonesia to Hong Kong sank in choppy seas and its 19 Filipino crew were missing, the Philippine coast guard said.
At least 89 of the 115 people officially reported to have died were residents of Camiguin. None of those killed were tourists.
Fifteen people died on Cebu island, including the workers at the Toledo copper mine, 10 drowned on Negros island while one died in Bohol.
Mr Felicito Abao, a farmer, wept inconsolably outside a gymnasium in Mahinog where most of the dead were laid out on a basketball court. One of the corpses was that of his youngest child, still a baby. "I am still looking for my wife and my two other daughters," Mr Abao said. Their house collapsed after torrents of mud fell onto it, he said. "I could hear my children crying. Then we were swimming together, I was clutching them, then they were gone. So was my wife."
Although sugar and coconut-growing areas were hit, there was no word yet of crop damage. The storm knocked out power on Boracay island, one of Asia's most exotic beach destinations.