The death toll from a tropical storm in the southern Philippines has risen to 182, with 153 people still missing, police said.
Tropical Storm Tembin has lashed the nation's second largest island of Mindanao since yesterday, triggering flash floods and mudslides.
Rescuers retrieved 36 bodies from the Salog river in Mindanao today, as officials reported more fatalities in the impoverished Zamboanga peninsula.
Regional officials confirmed more fatalities in three provinces and one city, after rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from a swollen river.
One man was killed by a crocodile while securing his boat as the storm bore down on the western island of Palawan, police said.
The Philippines is pummelled by 20 major storms each year on average, many of them deadly. But Mindanao, home to 20 million people, is rarely hit by such cyclones.
Floodwaters started ebbing over the island today, authorities said, adding that more than 12,000 of its 20 million residents have now fled their homes.
Police reported 19 deaths in the mountain village of Dalama near Tubod town, and 26 others in surrounding towns and cities of Lanao del Norte province, one of the hardest-hit areas.
"The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there," Tubod police said.
Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels to dig through mud and debris in a bid to recover bodies in the farming village of about 2,000 people, police added.
The deadliest typhoon to hit the country was Haiyan, which killed thousands and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.
Tembin was forecast to smash into the tip of the western island of Palawan late tonight, the state weather service said.
