Manila - Relief agencies Saturday urgently dispatched aid to several northern Philippine provinces battered by a powerful typhoon that left at least 30 people dead and seven missing.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said workers and equipment were also dispatched to help in the immediate rebuilding of roads and bridges damaged by typhoon Chan-Hom.

The agency said more than 60,000 people have been affected by Chan-Hom, 6,302 were transferred to evacuation centres. Damage to infrastructure and crops was estimated at 147.46 million pesos (3.07 million dollars).

Most of the fatalities were reported from the provinces of Pangasinan and Ifugao where 24 people have been killed.

In Pangasinan province, 180 kilometres north of Manila, Chan-Hom flattened thousands of houses, while farther north in Ifugao province, landslides buried dozens of houses.

Chan-Hom toppled electrical posts, uprooted trees and busted electrical transformers in the affected provinces, cutting off electricity to a wide area, the NDCC said.

The weather bureau said Chan-Hom has weakened into a tropical depression, with maximum winds of 55 kilometres per hour, as it moves out of the country.

Chan-Hom struck the Philippines a few days after typhoon Kujira battered eastern provinces, killing 27 people and damaging more than 9 million dollars worth of crops, livestock and fisheries.