Tropical storm Lekima leaves 10 dead or missing in Philippines

Tropical storm Lekima killed nine people and left another missing in the Philippines after unleashing landslides, floods and big waves, rescuers said Sunday.

The weather bureau here lowered all cyclone alerts on the main island of Luzon as the storm dissipated into a weaker tropical depression in the South China Sea.

A landslide buried two houses in a mountain village near the town of Hingyon late Saturday, killing eight people, the civil defence office here said.

One other family member was missing while a nine year-old boy was injured, it said in an updated report.

Meanwhile, a military rescue unit recovered the body of a drowning victim in northern Manila, it said.

The storm swept across Luzon with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometres (40 miles) an hour on Saturday, shutting down ferry services, swelling dams and rivers, and unleashing floods that displaced some 3,400 people, the government agency said.

Huge waves also smashed onto the Sarangani coast of the main southern island of Mindanao, damaging 29 houses in the village of San Nicolas.

Ferry services between Luzon and the central islands resumed Sunday, but small fishing boats and other craft were warned to stay in port due to big waves.