"They are buried under three metres (nine feet) of mud. I think they are all dead," Matela said, referring to people missing on Camiguin where rescue teams pressed on with their search, fighting the stench of corpses.

Camiguin Governor Pedro Romualdo wept in front of reporters, saying he felt most sorry for the many children who had died. A day after a river of mud and boulders tumbled down from the hills and flattened hundreds of houses on Camiguin, tropical storm Lingling ripped through the central Visayas region, triggering more floods and landslides.

Cities and towns in the region were plunged into darkness and a tunnel in Asia's largest copper mine on Cebu island collapsed, killing 11 workers.

Thousands of villagers fled their homes early on Wednesday when the storm struck Camiguin - dubbed "paradise island" for its white beaches, waterfalls off volcanic cliffs and rustic lifestyle.

The storm pummelled the central islands of Cebu, Panay and Negros yesterday and was expected to hit Palawan island in the west on Friday before heading across the South China Sea toward Vietnam, the weather bureau said.

"We expect the number of dead to rise as rescuers keep on digging for more bodies," said Mayor Benedicto Castanarez of the ravaged town of Mahinog on Camiguin, a pear-shaped island off the southern mainland of Mindanao.

"We have to bury them immediately because they will cause an epidemic," he said.

WALLS OF MUD

Heavy winds felled coconut trees in Hubangon village in Mahinog, slamming them across roads and onto houses. Walls of mud boulders the size of cars smashed into the village.

Of some 200 houses in the village, only about 10 still stood. In one part of the village, only bits of furniture - a broken sofa and cabinet - showed people had once lived there.

North of the Philippines, a Panamanian-registered foreign cargo vessel carrying logs from Indonesia to Hong Kong sank in choppy seas and its 19 Filipino crew were missing, the Philippine coast guard said.

At least 89 of the 115 people officially reported to have died were residents of Camiguin. None of those killed were tourists.

Fifteen people died on Cebu island, including the workers at the Toledo copper mine, 10 drowned on sugar-growing Negros island while one died in Bohol.

Farmer Felicito Abao wept unconsoleably outside a gymnasium in Mahinog where most of the dead were laid out on a basketball court. One of the corpses was that of his youngest child, still a baby.

"I am still looking for my wife and my two other daughters," Abao said.

He lost them when their house crumbled after torrents of mud slammed into it.

"The rains were so strong and the winds were fierce. Suddenly, our house collapsed and we were swimming in the water," Abao said.

"I could hear my children crying. Then we were swimming together, I was clutching them, then they were gone. So was my wife."

Although sugar and coconut-growing areas were hit, there was there was no word yet of any crop damage.

The storm knocked out power on Boracay island, one of Asia's most exotic beach destinations.

The storm, with winds gusting up to 90 kph (56 mph), was much weaker than Hurricane Michelle which lashed Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas with winds of up to 217 kph (135 mph) earlier this week. Michelle killed 16 people in Central America and five in Cuba, officials there said.