Child coffins run out in Philippine flood city

Dexter Lacson has run out of children's coffins as wave upon wave of bloated corpses threatens to overwhelm his southern Philippine mortuary after the most fearsome flash floods in living memory.


Thirty hours after the floods pulverised the city of Cagayan de Oro, the undertaker's stocks of embalming formaldehyde are low and small-size caskets have gone entirely due to the sheer number of child victims.

"We are swamped. I only have five embalmers. It takes an average of four hours for each body but we have 200-plus bodies," a bleary-eyed Lacson said.

Officially, the Philippine Red Cross has tallied 248 fatalities in Cagayan de Oro from the floods, but says hundreds more people are missing overall.

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