Distraught survivors searched piles of bodies for the faces of their loved ones in the central Philippines yesterday after landslides triggered by Typhoon Durian left hundreds dead.

Durian moved into the South China Sea on Friday after affecting 800,000 people in the Philippines and was expected to weaken into a tropical storm before hitting Vietnam on Monday.

Villages were engulfed on Thursday around Mount Mayon, an active volcano about 320 km south of Manila, when driving rain and winds of up to 225 kph dislodged tonnes of mud and boulders from the slopes.

The governor of Albay province, the worst-hit area, said a wall of water 1.8 metres high crashed down the volcano.

"We lost everything," Fernando Gonzales told Reuters, adding 100 people had been killed by the torrent.

The national disaster agency said a total of 303 people had died in eastern provinces, 285 in Albay alone. At least 293 people were missing.

The toll was rising sharply as rescue workers, some using their bare hands, pulled corpses and body parts from the mud.

"Right now we are on retrieval operations. We do not believe there are any survivors," Cedric Daep, head of the provincial disaster co-ordinating council, told Reuters.

Army commanders asked for dog teams to help with the grim search and sacks of lime to mask the stench of death. With roads blocked, soldiers hiked for hours to get to the disaster area.

"The scene wrenched my heart," Colonel Robert Morales said on radio. "I could see bodies of women and children all over."

Thousands of survivors crammed into schools and churches as disaster agencies called for fresh water, food and medicine.

Pope Benedict offered prayers for the mainly Roman Catholic country. Canada said it was giving C$1 million to the relief effort and Japan pledged $173,000.

Nearly 45,000 people were left homeless and entire communities isolated after power lines and phone links were knocked out and bridges washed away. Livelihoods were lost as fruit trees were uprooted and rice paddies destroyed.