Deadly stampede as Haiyan victims storm rice warehouse

Eight Haiyan victims were killed in a stampede on Tuesday at a rice warehouse near the coastal city of Tacloban in the Philippines.  

The warehouse located in Alangalang town, 10 miles from Tacloban was guarded by the police, soldiers and private security teams but they were all overpowered by the crowd desperate for food, who managed to abscond with at least 129,000 bags of rice.

A spokesman for the National Food Authority said: “One wall of the warehouse collapsed and eight people were crushed and killed instantly.”

Five days after Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, one of the most powerful storms recorded in the history hit the country, people are desperate for help to escape the devastated city of Tacloban.

The Filipino military has confirmed the official death toll stands at 2,275 and is expected to rise to 2,500.

Nearly 480,000 people have been displaced and 4.5 million affected in 46 provinces and are now left without shelter, food and water by the deadliest storm.

With rising fears of disease epidemics due to scores of decaying bodies in the streets across Tacloban, mass burials are taking place at many places.

Officials say most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging water and floating debris that levelled the houses drowning hundreds of people.

The United Nations has released £15 million in emergency funds to help survivors. The US and the UK have answered the relief agencies call for food, water, medicines, and tarpaulins for the homeless and sent across help.

Typhoon Haiyan made its way across the border from northern Vietnam into China’s Guanxi province late on Monday, with winds of 75mph, producing heavy rainfall of up to 12 inches in some areas. However the damage was relatively limited as compared to Philippines.

Aastha Gill