Storm Megi caused powerful landslides in the Philippines, where at least 58 people perished. On Wednesday, the search for survivors resumed while 27 people are still missing.

Landslides and flooding caused by Tropical Storm Megi have claimed at least 58 lives in the Philippines, according to the latest official reports released on Wednesday (April 13th).

Most of the deaths - at least 47, according to local authorities - occurred around the town of Baybay in the central province of Leyte, where several villages were buried under mudslides. A total of 27 people remain missing in the same area.

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Suspended overnight, the search resumed Wednesday at dawn, rescuers sometimes digging with their bare hands in the mud.

First storm of the year

At least five people died in Pilar, a village of around 400 people also in Leyte province, police said. Most of the houses in the village were thrown into the sea by a gigantic landslide.

The storm also killed three people in the province of Negros Oriental (center) and three others on the southern island of Mindanao, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.

Megi, known in the Philippines by its local name of Agaton, is the first major tropical storm to hit the country this year, which is frequently hit by natural disasters.