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Thousands of hectares of farm land were under water while bridges and roads have been washed away, cutting off access to at least 322 villages. -- PHOTO: AFP
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MANILA - AT least 20 people have been killed and more than 288,000 displaced by flash floods and landslides as heavy rain lashed the central and southern Philippines, relief workers said on Thursday.
Fourteen people have died in the central Philippines, while six people were killed when a landslide hit the town of Salvador on the southern island of Mindanao.
The military has begun flying relief supplies to some of the worst affected areas and rescuing residents trapped by rising flood waters in the central Philippines.
The civil defence office said 59,338 families - or more than 288,780 people - have been displaced as heavy rains pounded the central islands of Samar, Leyte, Biliran, Panay and Catanduanes, as well as the Bicol peninsula southeast of Manila.
Civil defence officials and the Red Cross put the death toll at 20, with at least five people reported missing.
The weather bureau said a low-pressure area and the tail-end of a cold front in the country's south had combined to bring unseasonal heavy rains across the islands over the past week.
Thousands of hectares of farm land were under water while bridges and roads have been washed away, cutting off access to at least 322 villages, Red Cross spokeswoman Pam Domingo told AFP.
One C-130 military transport plane was flying emergency food and clothing to Tacloban airport in Leyte, while army trucks were delivering supplies to nearby Samar, the civil defence office said in a statement.
Two army battalions have been drafted in for rescue and evacuation operations in Samar, which accounted for about half the affected population, it added. -- AFP
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