Residents climb onto higher ground near a flooded village in Marikina City, Half of Manila remains under water, as torrential rains paralysed the Philippine capital in its worst floods since a typhoon killed more than 400 people three years ago.Schools, businesses and most government and private offices were shut as key roads in Manila - a sprawling metropolis of some 15 million people - were submerged by waters that in some areas reached neck-deep.
Tens of thousands fled their homes as huge walls of water swept away houses, residents were stranded on rooftops and one slum was hit by a landslide, with at least 15 people confirmed killed in and near the city.- As local television flashed live footage of rampaging rivers carrying off houses and residents marooned on their rooftops, President Benigno Aquino said the government was doing everything it could to help.
- Power was turned off in some parts of the city as a precautionary measure with the waters seeping into electrical facilities, the city's power distributor said.
- In some areas of Metro Manila, people were trapped on the second floor of their houses by the fast-rising waters.
Even before the deluge, the nationwide death toll from eight days of sustained rains had reached 53, with more than 268,000 people forced to flee their homes across the country. Civil defence office said that while some 20,000 people fled to evacuation centres overnight, many more sought refuge in relatives' homes.The death toll from typhoon Saola and the monsoon at the northwest portion of the country has reached 45, disaster management authorities reported as bad weather persists over a large portion of the country.
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