MANILA, Philippines – Half of Manila was under water and 15 people died Tuesday (August 7th) as torrential rain paralysed the city and surrounding provinces, sweeping away houses, stranding residents on rooftops and triggering a landslide, AFP reported.

Schools, financial markets and most government and private offices were shut as key roadways in the capital were submerged by waters that in some areas reached neck-deep.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that more than 800,000 people had been affected, with 18,600 in government evacuation centres and some 231,000 seeking refuge with friends or relatives.

Nine people from the same family were killed when a landslide struck a slum in the north of the city. In nearby provinces, four people drowned in Bulacan and two were killed in Batangas.

Tuesday's deaths brought the number of people killed by monsoon rains across the Philippines to 68 over the past week, civil defence officials said, in the most extensive floods since a typhoon killed hundreds three years ago.