Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain have killed six people in Mindanao, with one other person missing, rescuers said on Thursday, February 1.

Rain began pounding wide areas of Mindanao, the countrys second-largest island, last weekend, causing floods and landslides that officials said sent thousands fleeing to emergency shelters.

The hardest-hit areas were the mountainous municipality of Maragusan, which recorded 23 landslides since Sunday, January 28, and the adjacent town of New Bataan where more than 10,000 people were evacuated from flooded homes.

Three people were killed and a fourth was missing in the Maragusan landslides, its municipal disaster officer Romeo Tublag told AFP.

"Our town is surrounded by mountains so landslides are an ever-present threat. Its been raining almost daily here," Tublag said.

In New Bataan, a landslide killed a man while a woman was swept away and killed by floodwaters and another man electrocuted outside his flooded house, disaster official Aeona Armocilla told AFP.

Swollen rivers flooded three barangays, forcing the evacuation of 10,100 residents, Armocilla said, adding that it was still raining in the area late Thursday.

Floods also hit the municipalities of Bunawan and Veruela in nearby Agusan del Sur province, with more than 5,000 people sheltering in evacuation centers, provincial disaster official Alexis Cabardo told AFP.