A British man is among those missing in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, according to reports.
Colin Bembridge, 61, was staying with his Filipino partner Maybelle, 35, and their three-year-old daughter Victoria near Tacloban when the devastating storm struck.
Channel 4 News said the pharmacist, who lives in Grimbsy, had been visiting his girlfriend’s relatives and had hired a beach house in Baybay, one of the ravaged coastal villages.
Typhoon Haiyan has left thousands dead and many more homeless, and large numbers of survivors are struggling without food, water and shelter.
The mother of Mr Bembridge’s partner, 79-year-old Lydia showed Channel 4 News the wreckage of the beach house where her daughter and granddaughter had been staying.
“I just want to know whether they are dead or whether they were blown by the winds,” she told the programme.
More than £30million has been raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in just three days. The alliance of 14 UK aid charities said the funds raised will be used to deliver vital food, water and sanitation equipment, household items and building materials to rebuild essential infrastructure in the ruined areas.
Its chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “The DEC member agencies and their partners are working on the ground to deliver essential aid.
“But the needs are so great, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced. People desperately need the basics of food, water and shelter.”
The typhoon a week ago devastated nine regions with the country’s national Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre counting 2,357 killed and 3,853 injured. DEC said fuel in the provincial capital of Tacloban was expected to run out within days.
Yesterday morning an RAF cargo plane carrying heavy duty vehicles and medical supplies left RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire as part of Britain’s emergency response to the disaster.
The huge C-17 transport plane was carrying two JCB diggers, two Land Rovers and a forklift truck emblazoned with stickers reading “UK aid from the British people”.
The aircraft, operated by No 99 Squadron, is due to land in the Philippines today.
A 12-strong team of British doctors, surgeons and paramedics landed in the capital, Manila, on Thursday to help treat survivors of the typhoon, the Department for International Development (DfID) said.