British warship HMS Daring arrives in the Philippines

17 November 2013

The British warship HMS Daring arrived in the Philippines today to bring aid to the areas devastated by hurricane Haiyan.

The Type 45 destroyer and her crew have docked at the island of Cebu ready to provide humanitarian assistance to the areas affected by the disaster, the Department for International Aid and Development said.

It has spent the last three days carrying out reconnaissance work in and around the Philippines, using a helicopter to survey the areas which have not yet been reached by international relief teams.

The Lynx helicopter will now be used to fly shelter kits, food and medical supplies to those remote areas.

Members of the 12-strong medical team from the UK, which arrived in the Philippines earlier this week, will also be flown to different areas to treat injured victims of the typhoon.

Save the Children said a barge carrying more than 25 tonnes of aid items and essential household kits is also expected to reach the country this afternoon.

Tomorrow, a British Airways jet will leave from the UK in support of aid agencies including Oxfam, Save the Children and Unicef flying aid and supplies to the disaster zone.

A number of Britons are missing following Typhoon Haiyan, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday. Among those feared dead is Colin Bembridge, 61, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, who was staying with his Filipino partner Maybelle, 35, and their three-year-old daughter Victoria near the city of Tacloban when the storm struck.

Channel 4 News said Mr Bembridge was visiting his partner's relatives and had hired a beach house in the coastal village of Baybay.

The mother of Mr Bembridge's partner, 79-year-old Lydia, showed the programme the wreckage of the beach house where her daughter and granddaughter were staying, and said they had not been seen since the typhoon struck eight days ago.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Hague spoke on the phone to Philippines secretary for foreign affairs Albert Ferreros Del Rosario to offer his condolences.

"The Foreign Secretary confirmed that a number of British nationals remained unaccounted for," the spokesman added. "He asked that every possible assistance be given to any British people caught up in the disaster."

Yesterday, an RAF C-17 plane carrying heavy-duty vehicles and emergency medical supplies touched down in Cebu province to deliver two JCB diggers, two Land Rovers and a forklift truck after leaving RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire the previous morning.

The logistical equipment will help with the distribution of aid, clear debris left by the storm and with reconstruction work.

The news of the huge response to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) appeal comes after the BBC announced its annual Children in Need fundraiser raised a record £31 million for disadvantaged children and young adults in the UK.

Speaking on behalf of the 14 UK charities which make up the DEC, its chief executive Saleh Saeed said: "The generosity of the public is yet again surpassing all expectations."

David Cameron also announced the Government is to give an extra £30 million in aid, bringing the total contribution to £50 million.

Speaking at a press conference in Sri Lanka ahead of the Commonwealth summit, the Prime Minister said the scale of the disaster was "becoming clearer every day".

An RAF C-130 Hercules transport aircraft will also be sent over to help carry aid workers to areas that have so far been difficult to reach.

British Airways said the Boeing 747 freighter, which has a capacity for up to 120 tonnes of cargo, is scheduled to leave Stansted Airport in Essex early tomorrow.

Typhoon Haiyan - said to be the strongest-ever to make landfall - has made roads impassable and left airports out of action, severely hampering relief efforts.

Asif Ahmad, British ambassador to the Philippines, was at the airport to meet yesterday morning's delivery.

He said: "The significance of this load is that it is heavy machinery: bulldozers, Land Rovers, machines that can actually push through the debris that is blocking aid now.

"This is vital equipment because the Philippine military and others have not been able to bring this material here."

A 12-strong team of British doctors, surgeons and paramedics are already in the country helping to treat survivors of the disaster.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is being sent to replace HMS Daring, which had just begun an exercise in the South China Sea when it was tasked to join the humanitarian relief effort.

The latest death toll given by Mr Cameron is an increase of more than 1,000 on estimates made by the country's civil defence agency earlier this week.