Five people, including a six-month-old baby and three children, died in flash floods caused by monsoon rains in the Philippines, civil defence officials said Thursday.
“The victims were living near waterways,” which swelled due to weeks of heavy rain, sweeping away more than 70 houses in the cities of Valencia and Malaybalay, she said.
The weather bureau said a typhoon passing by the northern Philippines was enhancing the south-west monsoon, triggering more rains in the eastern sections of the country.
Typhoon Soudelor was packing maximum winds of 165 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 200 kph as it moved west-northwest across the Philippines.
It was not expected to make landfall over the archipelago and had weakened since it was first spotted, the weather bureau said. But it added that the typhoon will still bring more rain in the country.
