I still cannot believe what happened... I've never seen anything like this

Camiguin Governor Pedro Romualdo

Worst hit was the southern island province of Camiguin where landslides and flash floods badly damaged whole towns.

Eighty-eight people are believed to have died on the popular tourist resort island.

Regional civil-defence director Casiano Matel told Reuters news agency 237 people were buried under three metres of mud and boulders, presumed dead.

Lingling was reported to be heading northwest on Friday morning, over the South China Sea towards southern Vietnam.

Meteorologists said the storm was strengthening and could become a typhoon.

At 0730GMT, Lingling's centre lay over the northern part of the Spratly Islands, about 400km (250 miles) east of Vietnam's Cam Ranh district. Vietnam is recovering from months of flooding in which more than 350 people have died.

Deadly flash floods

Correspondents say Lingling, which landed late on Tuesday, is not particularly powerful, but it has triggered deadly flash floods.

Camiguin is usually spared the worst of the region's annual storms, which generally cause more problems in the Philippines' northern islands.

Rescue teams are fighting their way through trees, debris and mud

Elsewhere in the Philippines, there are reports of eight deaths in the town of Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao, and nine people are said to have died, mainly by drowning, on Cebu and Negros islands.

Nineteen crewmen are also feared dead after a cargo ship sank off the main island of Luzon.

Provincial officials have increased security measures in Cebu's main city after 12 hours of continuous rains. Landslides have cut off a major highway, and many cars have been submerged.

Lingling is the 14th major storm to hit the Philippines since January - an average of 20 hit the archipelago every year - but it is unseasonably late.

It is moving slowly north-north-west across the archipelago and is expected to hit Palawan island in the west on Friday, before moving out of the Philippines into the South China Sea.