Typhoon in Philippines - over 10,000 feared dead

[TACLOBAN, Philippines] One of the most powerful storms ever recorded is feared to have killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said yesterday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region's main city.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 per cent of the area in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said chief superintendent Elmer Soria, a regional police director.

Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging sea water strewn with debris that many described as similar to a tsunami, levelling houses and drowning hundreds of people in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the typhoon-prone South-east Asian nation.