Landslide deaths lift Philippine storm toll past 540

The death toll from two weeks of unprecedented storms across the northern Philippines soared past 540 today after landslides consumed homes and neck-deep floods inundated towns.

At least 181 people were killed in a series of rain-triggered landslides overnight yesterday and today in mountainous regions of the Philippines main island of Luzon, officials in those areas reported.

Meanwhile, the downstream farming plains of central Luzon were inundated with waters that reached two storeys high after dams in the mountains could not hold the phenomenal amount of water that has fallen on the region.

"The rains in this area are unprecedented," the executive officer of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Glen Rabonza said.

"We are stretched, no doubt, but we are responding in the best way we can."

The crisis showed no signs of easing as tropical storm Parma, responsible for the past week of rains, continued to hover just off Luzon.

Further south on Luzon in the nation's capital, Manila, nearly 3,00,000 homeless survivors were packed into makeshift evacuation camps following record rains on September 26 that killed at least 337 people.