The death toll from a weekend typhoon and a storm in the Philippines has risen to 79 people, and at least 86 others are missing, a disaster agency said on Wednesday.

Nearly 11,000 houses were destroyed and more than 23,000 buildings damaged when Typhoon Muifa struck the Bicol region, southeast of Manila, during the weekend, affecting more than 250,000 people, said Neri Amparo, operations chief at the Office of Civil Defense.

The typhoon killed 61 people and left 80 others missing, mostly fishermen, in Bicol Province and on Mindoro and Romblon islands south of Manila, the office said in a report. The typhoon toppled trees, electricity and telephone lines, it said.

Another 18 people died and six went missing in flash floods and a landslide from a smaller storm that dumped torrential rains over the provinces of Aurora and Nueva Ecija, northeast of Manila, early on Tuesday, disaster officials said.

Much of the damage in the two provinces occurred when uprooted trees and illegally cut logs, washed away by the floods, smashed into homes and destroying a major bridge.

(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, November 25, 2004)