30 miners killed in landslide in northern Philippines

MANILA -- At least 30 miners were killed and 13 others went missing in a landslide in the northern Philippines, a high-ranking military official said on Sunday.

Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Northern Luzon Command, said a total of 43 miners were trapped when Typhoon Mangkhut smashed the Philippines early on Saturday. Rescuers are still trying to search for the missing miners who are trapped inside a tunnel in Itogon, a town in Benguet province.

Adding the 30 dead miners, the death toll in the wake of powerful Typhoon Mangkhut that swept through the northern end of Philippine Luzon Island has now climbed to 59.

The typhoon triggered a total of 81 landslides and 13 flooding incidents in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) alone, a government disaster agency reported.

Typhoon Mangkhut, locally known as Ompong, is the 15th typhoon and the strongest to ravage the Philippines this year.

Typhoons hit the Philippines about 20 times a year, bringing strong winds and heavy rains, resulting in flooding, great damage to crops, houses and buildings, and deaths.

In 2013, super typhoon Haiyan devastated Leyte province in the central Philippines, killing more than 6,000 people.