Add'l policemen sent to Tacloban City to stop looting

MANILA, Philippines - Additional policemen are being sent to Tacloban City to restore peace and order in the capital of Leyte province, severely devastated by Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan).

Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima said he has ordered the deployment of at least 120 policemen to Tacloban City, where people have resorted to looting pending the government's relief efforts for the isolated city.

Purisima said the additional policemen are part of the 150 personnel sent to Eastern Visayas to help in the relief and rescue efforts. He said the contingent came from Central Visayas and Metro Manila.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas has confirmed news reports of looting in Tacloban City.

ABS-CBN News has aired a footage of the looting at the Gaisano Mall, where people were seen coming out of the building carrying goods, including food, toys, medicine and even an ice cream freezer.

There are also reports that ATM machines are also being forcibly opened by the typhoon-affected residents in Southern Leyte.

Meanwhile, Roxas said that the government is already sending relief goods for the affected residents of Eastern Samar, including Tablocan City, by air and by sea.

Thousands of people are feared killed by the typhoon in Eastern Samar and other provinces in Visayas and majority of the fatalities are in Tacloban City, where bodies were seen on its streets filled with debris.

"Yolanda" slammed into Eastern Samar as a super typhoon before dawn Friday and ripped through Visayas and parts of Southern Luzon until night around 9 p.m.

The typhoon is the strongest to hit the Philippines and also perceived as the world's strongest typhoon in history to make a landfall.

It was packing maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 275 kph when it slammed into Guiuan, Eastern Samar.