18,000 flee new storm Kajiki in central Philippines, wrecked by Haiyan

One man died and more than 18,000 people fled their homes in the Philippines' Visayas and Mindanao regions as tropical storm Kajiki battered areas still struggling to recover from Typhoon Haiyan and a 7.2- magnitude earthquake.

A man drowned in Macrohon town, Southern Leyte, Armando Bolalin, the province's police chief, said.

More than half of those displaced were from Leyte and Tacloban, which accounted for 5,308 of the 6,200 killed when Haiyan hit on November 8, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Around 4,200 were from Cebu island, which was shaken by the October 15 quake.

The rest of the evacuees were from the Dinagat Islands and Surigao del Norte province, which were hit last month by tropical depression Agaton, which triggered floods and landslides that killed at least 70 people, the risk agency reported.

Kajiki, named Basyang locally, has winds of up to 65 km/h and maximum gusts of 80 km/h. It has stranded 9,500 people in ports and triggered a power outage in the Dinagat Islands.

A two-metre storm surge hit the towns of San Jose and Cagdianao in the islands, a provincial government official said, adding there was no major damage reported.