Philippine storm victims feared tsunami, ran toward mudslide

A resident carrying belongings walk among debris from landslide in the landslide-hit village of Kusiong in Datu Odin Sinsuat in the southern Philippines' Maguindanao province. - AFP

MANILA (AP): Victims of a huge mudslide set off by a storm in a coastal Philippine village that had once been devastated by a killer tsunami mistakenly thought a tidal wave was coming and ran to higher ground where they were buried alive by the boulder-laden deluge, an official said Sunday (Oct 30).

At least 18 bodies, including those of children, have been dug out by rescuers in the vast muddy mound that now covers much of Kusiong village in southern Maguindanao province, among the hardest-hit by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which blew out of the northwestern Philippines early Sunday.