Clean-up operations begin as Typhoon Hagupit weakens

Typhoon Hagupit weakened further on Tuesday as the storm moved slowly across the central Philippines, while rescue workers struggled in its aftermath to reach towns in central provinces where thousands of homes were wrecked and at least 27 people killed.

Nearly 13,000 houses were crushed and more than 22,300 were partially damaged in Eastern Samar province, where Hagupit first hit land as a category 3 typhoon on Saturday, local officials said.

The typhoon weakened to a tropical depression on Tuesday with maximum winds of 60 kph near its center, as it made a fifth landfall over the Lubang islands, 150 km southwest of capital Manila. It is now moving west towards the South China Sea at 13 kph.

The 27 people reported killed died in Iloilo province and on Samar island, including 12 residents in Borongan town in Eastern Samar who were swept away by raging waters and flash floods, Red Cross officials said.

More than 2 million people so far have felt the impact of Hagupit, with nearly 1.7 million fleeing to relatives' homes on safer ground or packing in to evacuation centers across the central Philippines and south of the main Luzon island, the national disaster agency said.