Grim search for victims

Keeping watch: A Filipino trooper standing guard as search operations continue at the site where victims are believed to have been buried by a landslide triggered by Typhoon Mangkhut in Itogon. — AP

Itogon (Philippines): Hundreds of Philippine rescuers used shovels and their bare hands to sift through a massive landslide where dozens are feared dead in the region worst-hit by deadly Typhoon Mangkhut, as the storm’s toll hit 74.

The storm, 2018’s most powerful, smashed homes and flooded key agricultural regions in the northern Philippines before battering Hong Kong and southern China with fierce winds and heavy rain.