Flooded residents on rooftops as Koppu pummels Philippinesc

Residents of flooded farming villages in the Philippines were trapped on their rooftops on Monday and animals floated down fast-rising rivers, as deadly Typhoon Koppu dumped more intense rain.

Koppu, the second strongest storm to hit the disaster-plagued Southeast Asian archipelago this year, has killed two people and forced more than 60,000 people from their homes, authorities said.

After making landfall on Sunday morning on the east coast of Luzon, the Philippines' biggest island, the slow-moving typhoon has brought heavy rain to some of the nation's most important farming areas.

"I've never seen anything like this. It's the worst flood I've seen in my entire life," farmer Reynaldo Ramos, 68, told AFP as he walked through knee-deep water in Santa Rosa, about two hours' drive north of Manila.

Military, local government and volunteer rescue units were trying to help residents in about 70 villages that were under water, with the floods spreading, according to Nigel Lontoc, a regional rescue official.

"The floods are rising fast and some people are now on their rooftops," Lontoc told AFP.

"The water is now too deep even for big military trucks, so our people are trying to reach them using rubber boats," he said, but added there were only 10 teams at their disposal at the moment.

Lontoc said many thousands of people may be stranded in those villages, although it was too early to determine an exact number.