450 dead, 600 missing after Filipino typhoon

Filipino authorities fear that over 1,000 people have died in the onslaught of Typhoon Durian, which savaged the southern Asian country last week.

Gale force winds and extreme storms caused devastating mudslides to destroy several villages, kill 450 and leave around 600 still missing as the severe weather moved south, displacing tens of thousands.

The worst affect area was at the base of the Mount Mayon volcano, south-east of the capital, Manila, where the majority of deaths are thought to have occurred.

"It's going to be very difficult, extremely difficult to retrieve all the bodies," Senator Richard Gordon, head of the local Red Cross, told Reuters. "This is such a wide area."

"You are probably talking 700 to 1,000 people who have lost their lives."

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has declared a state of national calamity as the typhoon left Filipino shores and set off on its way across the Indian Ocean and while it is expected to reach Vietnam soon, experts predict that its force will have diminished significantly.

Typhoon Durian has come at the very end of the stormy season, which usually begins in July.