Philippines typhoon: Survivors walking like zombies, looting begins

Tacloban, Philippines: It's a scary scene out here after a powerful super typhoon Haiyan tore through this town and neighbouring areas, with survivors walking out like zombies on the streets. "People are walking like zombies looking for food," said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte. "It's like a movie."Here in Tacloban, looters went on a spree through several shops, taking away whatever they could find, said an eyewitness. Mobs attacked trucks loaded with food, tents and water on Tanauan bridge in Leyte, richard Gordon, chairman, Philippines Red Cross said. "These are mobsters operating out of there."Five bodies were seen inside a chapel near the airport, placed on pews. Says airport manager Efren Nagrama: "It was like a tsunami with sea waves shooting up to 4 metres (13 feet). We escaped through the windows and I held on to a pole for about an hour as rain, seawater and wind swept through the airport.""Some of my staff survived by clinging to trees. I prayed hard all throughout until the water subsided", Nagrama said.Tacloban city airport was all but destroyed as seawaters swept through the city, shattering the glass of the airport tower, levelling the terminal and overturning nearby vehicles.World Food Programme said it was airlifting 40 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 120,000 people for a day, as well as emergency supplies and telecommunications equipment.Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging sea water strewn with debris that many said resembled a tsunami, levelling houses and drowning hundreds of people.Mila Ward, an Australian citizen and Filipino by birth who was in Leyte on vacation visiting her family, said she saw hundreds of bodies on the streets."They were covered with blankets, plastic. There were children and women," she said.Heavy ships were thrown to the shore, thousands of houses destroyed and vast tracts of farmland decimated, says the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.The Saturday typhoon came at a maximum windspd of 378 kmph. More than 330,900 people are homeless, 4.3 million affected and the death toll is feared to go beyond 10,000, say officials.