Typhoon Xangsane pounds Philippine capital

MANILA - Typhoon Xangsane lashed the Philippine capital on Thursday, grounding flights, halting vessels and closing schools and markets after triggering fatal flash floods in the centre of the country.

The storm, which brought heavy rain and winds of up to 160km per hour, hit the central Philippines on Wednesday trapping nearly 3500 ferry passengers and killing two people in a remote village after flood waters swept away dozens of houses.

Several central provinces were left without electricity and water as power lines crashed and many roads were left impassable due to uprooted trees, debris and flooding as Xangsane churned northwest towards Manila.

"It's like waking up from a nightmare," office of civil defence chief for the central Bicol region, Arnel Capili, told a radio station. "The first thing is to clear the national highway leading to Manila."

Disaster officials in the capital had raised the alert level ahead of Xangsane's arrival, the first typhoon to cross the city since 1995.

"We are asking the people to take extra precautions in the capital because we expect the eye of the storm to cross north of Manila before noon today," Nathaniel Cruz, chief forecaster, told local radio.

Manila's domestic airport said flights to and from the city on local carriers Asian Spirit and Cebu Pacific had been cancelled due to the tropical storm. One international flight to Hongkong was also suspended.

The Philippine coastguard said all sea travel to and from manila had been halted.

The central bank cancelled local trading in the peso and the stock exchange also closed. Schools in Manila and five provinces were also closed.

Residents living in at least 10 towns near the foot of Mayon volcano in the central province of Albay were urged to evacuate their homes due to the danger of winds whipping up mud flows.

Typhoons and tropical storms regularly hit the Philippines, an archipelago of about 7000 islands. In the worst disaster in recent years, more than 5000 people died in central Leyte island in 1991 in floods triggered by a typhoon.

In 2004, about 1800 people were killed or went missing in a series of storms. The toll included 480 who were killed when mudslides buried three towns in Quezon, an eastern province.

- REUTERS