At least 25 people were killed and as many as 31 others went missing as a slow-moving tropical storm dumped enormous amounts of rain across the Philippines' main island, authorities said Wednesday. Nock-ten, named after a Laotian bird, was expected to cause more damage in the mountainous northern areas of Luzon island on Wednesday night, while also bringing heavy rain to Manila, civil defence chief Benito Ramos told AFP.
"We are closely watching northern Luzon. There have already been landslides there but no casualties (there) so far," said Ramos, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Nock-ten, which struck the eastern Philippines on Tuesday, had already killed 25 people, with many of the victims caught in floods or consumed by landslides, Ramos said. Most of the missing were fishermen or sailors lost at sea, he added. More than 645,000 people were also forced to flee their flooded homes, particularly in the south-east of Luzon where Nock-ten first hit land.