Fire kills six typhoon victims in Philippine tent city

MANILA, May 28, 2014 (AFP) - Six members of the same family died after a fire struck a tent city set up for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines on Wednesday, a police official said.

The blaze broke out in a tent housing a couple and their six children in the central city of Tacloban after their home was destroyed by last year's typhoon, said Chief Superintendent Henry Losanes, the area's police chief.

The mother and her five children aged between four months and 12 years died while a sixth child was injured and is undergoing medical treatment, Losanes said.

The cause of the blaze is still being determined, he added.

The family was one of thousands left homeless when Haiyan, the most powerful typhoon ever to hit land, struck the central Philippines on November 6, 2013.

The typhoon killed 6,300 people and left 1,061 others missing, according to government records.

More than a million homes were also damaged by the storm and months afterwards, many of those affected are still huddling in vulnerable shelters like tents and makeshift shanties.

Reacting to the incident, President Benigno Aquino's special aide for Haiyan rehabilitation, Panfilo Lacson said that the government was already providing assistance to those affected and that residents of the tent city would soon be moved to "transitional shelters".