Typhoon Haiyan heads for Vietnam, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless in the Philippines

More than 100 people are thought to have died in in the Philippines in Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded. Hundreds have been injured and hundreds of thousands displaced and forced to flee their homes.With communications and roads still cut off, Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority, said he had received «reliable information»from his staff that more than 100 bodies were lying in the streets of the city of Tacloban on the hardest-hit Leyte Island.

It was one of six islands that Typhoon Haiyan swept across on Friday.Regional military commander Lt Gen Roy Deveraturda said the casualty figure «probably will increase,» after viewing aerial photographs of the devastation caused by the typhoon, which is now moving away from the Philippines. and eading toward Vietnam.A senior aide to President Benigno Aquino III said the number of casualties could not be determined, but that the figure was probably in the range given by Andrews.

Government troops were helping recover bodies, he said.Civil aviation authorities in Tacloban, a city of 200,000 about 360 miles south-east of Manila, reported that the seaside airport terminal had been «ruined» by the storm, Andrews said.US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that America «stands ready to help».Joseph de la Cruz, who was attending a meeting in Tacloban when the typhoon struck and hitched a ride on a military plane back to Manila, said he had counted at least 15 bodies.«A lot of the dead were scattered,» he said, adding that he walked for about eight hours to reach the Tacloban airport.Weather officials said Haiyan had sustained winds of 147 mph with gusts of 170 mph when it made landfall. By those measurements, Haiyan would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in theUS, nearly in the top category, a 5.Vice Mayor Jim Pe of Coron town on Busuanga, the last island battered by the typhoon before it blew away to the South China Sea, said most of the houses and buildings there had been destroyed or damaged.