Twenty dead and 40 missing as first typhoon of season hits Philippines

More than half of the main northern island of Luzon, which includes the capital Manila, was without electricity yesterday, and it was expected to take two to three days to restore power.

Several dozen flights were cancelled, and schools and many government offices closed. High winds felled trees and flooding was knee-deep in some communities in the capital.

Heavy rains, unrelated to the typhoon, have also wreaked havoc in China and Japan. The death toll from rain-triggered landslides rose to 41 in western China, and workers raced to drain overflowing reservoirs in the southeast. Flooding has killed more than 100 people in China so far this month, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Storms in southern and western Japan left one dead and three missing. A woman drowned in a swollen river, and two women in their 70s were among the missing, according to police. Nearly 10,000 homes were evacuated.

More rain was predicted into in both Japan and China.

In the Philippines, many died while fleeing the typhoon. The victims were over six provinces and a city, mostly near Manila.

Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III criticised the weather

bureau for failing to predict that the storm would hit Manila.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms a year, gaining a reputation as the welcome mat for the most destructive cyclones from the Pacific. Last year, back-to-back typhoons inundated Manila and outlying provinces, killing nearly 1,000 people.

Typhoon Conson came ashore on the east coast of Luzon on Tuesday night with winds of 75mph. It weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed the rice-growing island and buffeted Manila on Luzon's west coast for two hours.

The storm then headed out to the South China Sea and is expected to

make landfall again later this week in China, west of Macau.

Several people were killed by falling debris or electrocuted. One man drowned trying to save a dozen pigs in a swollen lake south of Manila, while his companion was swept away.

In Quezon province four fishermen drowned and 18 others were rescued after huge waves battered their boats.