Police in the Philippines say they fear 10,000 people may have died in the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan.

The Philippine government has so far only confirmed the death of several hundred people after the storm struck.

But regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was told by the provincial governor of Leyte that there were about 10,000 deaths on the eastern island alone.

Hundreds of thousands of people are reported displaced from their homes.

Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas says the scale of the relief operation is overwhelming, with some places described as a wasteland of mud and debris.

Tecson Lim, city administrator of Tacloban in north east of Leyte, told the Associated Press that the death toll in the city alone “could go up to 10,000”.

Typhoon Haiyan – one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall – is now bearing down on Vietnam, where tens of thousands are being evacuated.

– BBC.co.uk for more