Typhoon toll rises to 24

A typhoon whipped through the northwestern Philippines yesterday, killing at least 24 people in stormy seas and leaving more than 10,000 people stranded as air and ferry services were suspended.

Most of those killed were from a boat that capsized off Masbate island in the south of the Luzon region, the Coast Guard said.

At least 21 people on the vessel, named the Mae Ann 5, were killed and 18 were rescued, Coast Guard spokesman Joseph Coyme told reporters in Manila.

A fisherman drowned while four others were rescued when their boat sank in rough seas off the coast of Negros Occidental province in the central Philippines, Coyme said.

In Batangas province, near Manila, a 36-year-old woman was killed when a fence swept by floods crashed into her hut, officials told local radio.