MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) – About 50 Russian tourists are trapped in Manila and other areas of the Philippines after a powerful typhoon swept through the Southeast Asian country last week, an official at the Russian embassy there said Monday.
The embassy’s efforts to determine the whereabouts of the tourists and make contact with them have so far been unsuccessful, the embassy’s third secretary Alexei Ilyuviyev said. Some of them are believed to be in the capital waiting for a flight to Russia, while others could still be staying at resorts, he said.
Russia is waiting for permission from the Philippines to send a plane that will deliver humanitarian aid and take the Russian tourists back home, the diplomat said.
Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, swept across the Philippines on Friday, devastating towns and cities. Reports say 10,000 people might have been killed on the hardest-hit Leyte island.
