Officials in The Philippines say it is unlikely that any of the dozens of people thought to be buried in a huge landslide set off by Typhoon Mangkhut will be found alive.
But rescuers are still digging through the massive mound of mud and debris covering a chapel where they had sheltered.
Mayor Victorio Palangdan of Itogon town in Benguet province, among the worst-hit by the typhoon that struck on Saturday, said at a news conference that of the 40 to 50 people thought buried, there's a "99 per cent [chance] that they really are all dead".
Mangkhut has killed 65 people since it tore through the Philippines. The storm killed another four people in China, where Mangkhut weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland on Monday.
Most of those buried in the slide are thought to be poor miners and their families. In order to prevent such tragedies going forward, Environmental Secretary Roy Cimatu said the government would deploy soldiers and police to stop illegal mining in six mountainous northern provinces, including Benguet.
Philippine officials have said in the past that gold mines tunnelled by big mining companies legally or by unauthorised individuals and small outfits have made the hillsides unstable and more prone to landslides.
Tens of thousands of small-time miners in recent years have come to the mountain provinces from the lowlands and established communities in high-risk areas like the mountain foothills of Itogon.
Mangkhut weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it moved deeper into southern China on Monday.
The storm was still affecting southern China's coast and the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan and rain and strong winds were expected to continue through Tuesday.
Hong Kong residents were told to stay away from the coastline and be on alert for occasional gales.
Bus, ferry and rail services were suspended and almost 900 flights were cancelled at the city's airport, one of the world's busiest.
The South China Morning Post said Hong Kong's hospitals had to use back-up power due to outages caused by the storm.
Philippine and Chinese authorities said the death toll from a typhoon has risen to at least 69 with dozens missing.
A Philippine national police report said the latest death toll was 65, with 43 people missing and 64 injured. Chinese authorities reported four deaths from falling trees and building materials in Guangdong, China's manufacturing hub.
Many of the missing in the Philippines are gold miners and their families feared buried in a landslide after seeking shelter in a bunkhouse-turned-chapel in a village in Benguet province.
As of Monday morning Mangkhut was on track to pass over the Guangxi regional capital of Nanning and move toward the border with tourism powerhouse Yunnan province.
The Hong Kong Observatory reported Mangkhut was the most powerful cyclone to hit the city since 1979, packing maximum sustained gusts of 121 mph.
More than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China's Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the typhoon, state media said.
"Prepare for the worst," Hong Kong security minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents.
