Two French tourists were among at least 10 people killed when heavy rains collapsed an earthen dike and fed landslides and floods that deluged towns and villages in the northern Philippines, officials said Friday, AP reported. A group of French and South Koreans were traveling on Mount Pinatubo on Thursday in three vehicles when a landslide blocked their path, trapping one of the cars, said Tarlac provincial Gov. Victor Yap. Three French nationals were swept away in a flash flood and the bodies of two of them were recovered early Friday. One remains missing, Yap said. A Filipino guide also was killed, he said. The rest of the group was safe. The worst-hit area was Zambales province, west of Manila on the foothills of Mount Pinatubo. More than 1,000 residents of Botolan town sheltered overnight at a school after days of pounding rain caused a 21-yard (20-meter) breach in the Pinatubo dike, sending the floodwaters as high as roofs, said regional police chief Leo Nilo dela Cruz. A local tribal chief, Carling Dumulot, estimated that some 12,000 had evacuated their homes and said loosened trees carried by water and mud were slamming against houses and hindering evacuation efforts. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo exploded in one of the world's biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing about 800 people and closing down the U.S.-run Clark Air Base. Millions of tons of volcanic debris on the mountain slopes pose a constant danger during heavy rains.
