MANILA — Typhoon Conson ripped through the Philippines' main island on Wednesday, leaving at least eight people dead, sweeping shanties into the sea and leaving a trail of wreckage in Manila.Nineteen fishermen who were at sea when the typhoon, packing maximum gusts of 120 kilometres (74 miles) an hour, hit the Southeast Asian archiepelago were also missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.


 

Police reported two people died and three others were injured when they were hit by a falling mango tree in a small city about 40 kilometres south of capital Manila.

Another person was killed on the outskirts of Manila after being hit by a piece of a roof that was torn off a house, the disaster council said.With communication systems down amid the chaos of the typhoon's aftermath, disaster relief officials were still trying to determine the extent of the damage and there were concerns the death toll could rise.



 

Electricity was knocked out throughout the main island of Luzon, including Manila, where fallen tree branches and other debris littered the streets on Wednesday.

The capital's overhead railway system was also shut down due to the power outage that brought much of the city to a standstill.

Shanty towns erected by squatters on the coastal areas near Manila were also swept away, leaving the shocked, drenched residents to scavenge scrap wood to build makeshift shelters, according to an AFP reporter there.

"The wind howled like a child screaming... it was so strong, our houseboat nearly got flipped over," said Rigor Sambol, 52, who lives in the slum area with his six children aged three to 13.

"I had to take the children one by one to a nearby gym where they spent the evening on the cold floor. I nearly lost my three-year-old when he fell into the water because he got knocked down by the strong winds."

Conson blew past Luzon and into the South China Sea on Wednesday morning, but some international flights in and out of Manila were still cancelled while others were delayed.

The government called off classes at grade and high school levels in Manila.

The Philippines is in the so-called typhoon belt of the Pacific. Up to 20 cyclones sweep through the country each year, killing hundreds of people.

Conson was the first of the season, and its ferocity took the 12 million residents of Manila by surprise.

President Benigno Aquino let rip at the state weather service on Wednesday for not warning Manila's residents that Conson would hit the city.

"This is not acceptable," Aquino told red-faced weather service officials at an emergency meeting of rescue agencies.

"We rely on you to tell us where the potential problems are."

Many people in Manila went to bed late Tuesday having been lulled by forecasters' bulletins that Conson would hit the northern provinces instead of Manila.

However, the weather service failed to mention that the typhoon had a wide radius of 300 kilometres.

"All the agencies have adequately met their responsibilities at this point in time but your information is sorely lacking. We have had this problem for quite a long time," Aquino said.

The ill-equipped Philippine weather service came in for criticism in September last year when it failed to warn the residents of Manila about the threat from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which killed 464 people.By Jason Gutierrez (AFP)