Rain pounds Manila as flood death toll climbs

Heavy rains have pounded the Philippine capital Manila and surrounding areas for a third day, adding to the plight of nearly 300,000 people displaced from their flooded homes.

Fifteen people have been killed by the monsoon rains and floods that have battered the country’s main island of Luzon.

The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that most of the victims drowned, including an 84-year-old woman who perished in a suburb of Manila.

As of nightfall on Wednesday about 15 percent of Metro Manila, a low-lying city of 12 million people, was still flooded, down from 50 percent on Tuesday, said Mon Viloria of the city’s civil defence office.

The Philippine Red Cross said almost 300,000 people were living in evacuation centres or seeking shelter with friends and relatives.

This is usually the wettest time of the year in the Philippines, but the monsoon rains have been enhanced by Tropical Storm Trami.

People living in important farming regions to the north of Manila were also enduring flooding.

In Pampanga province knee-high water submerged vast areas of rice fields and farming towns.