A helicopter crashed on Tuesday in the southern Philippines on a humanitarian and disaster relief mission as Typhoon Kalmaegi has so far left at least 19 people in the country dead.
Rescue and recovery operations are ongoing for the helicopter, which went down in the Agusan del Sur province in the Mindanao region, according to the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom), reported the Rappler news website.
The Office of Civil Defense in Central Visayas – an administrative region of Philippines – said the causes of death of the 19 casualties so far range from drowning to being struck by a fallen tree, according to the GMA Network.
Seven individuals also remain missing.
Thousands have been evacuated from the expected impact areas since Sunday.
Typhoon Kalmaegi, locally known as Tino, currently affects parts of the central island of Visayas and northern island of Luzon.
Tino is expected to leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
