‘Storm victims ran towards mudslide’

Coming through: A tuk-tuk carrying passengers through a flooded street in Manila after Tropical Storm Nalgae lashed the capital before exiting. — AFP

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 towards a mountain and were buried alive by the boulder-laden deluge, an official said.

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 yesterday.