Survivors of Typhoon
Haiyan in the Philippines are growing increasingly desperate for food,
water and medical supplies, reports and officials say.
Martin Romualdez, a congressman from badly-hit Leyte, said a greater sense of urgency was needed to get aid out.
The UN says more than 11 million people may have been affected and some 673,000 displaced by Typhoon Haiyan.
On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of survivors mobbed a food warehouse.
There were also reports of gunshots in the streets of the devastated town of Tacloban, in Leyte, on Wednesday.
on Tuesday, Philippine President Benigno
Aquino said the death toll from the storm - known locally as Yolanda -
may be lower than first thought.
The widely reported figure of 10,000 killed may have come
from officials facing "emotional trauma", he said, and the real figure
was more likely up to 2,500.
But he said 29 municipalities had yet to be contacted to establish the number of victims there.
The president also warned that storms like Haiyan - known in
the Philippines as Yolanda - were becoming more frequent, and there
should be "no debate" that climate change was happening.
He said either the world committed to action on climate change "or let us be prepared to meet disasters".
Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms ever
recorded on land - hit the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on
Friday.
It swept through six central Philippine islands before going on to kill several people in Vietnam and southern China.
Philippines disaster management officials have put the confirmed death toll at 2,275, with another 3,665 injured. More than 80 people are listed as missing.
But Martin Romualdez told the BBC he believed the government
was giving "conservative" estimates of the death toll "so as not to
cause undue alarm".
"Just viewing the disaster's scope - its magnitude and the
areas affected - we believe that the 10,000 figure is more probable," he
said. "As we start cleaning up we are finding more bodies."
'Massive destruction'
He said the "sense of urgency should be stepped up at the national level as the international relief organisations come in".
"Better co-ordination is needed, because we are seeing a lot of
relief goods, medicines, equipment, coming in, but it's not reaching the
people affected, thereby causing a sense of hopelessness and
desperation in many of those who have survived and are now fleeing their
homes, their municipalities, their locales, out of sheer desperation."
He said the damage to Tacloban was "so massive in scale and
so extensive in our areas that we literally would have to rebuild from
scratch".
"We just imagine it, our area, as a ground zero, as if a nuclear bomb had exploded above us."
Relief operations are being stepped up, but damage to transport links and continuing bad weather have hindered aid distribution.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Tacloban - a city of 220,000 on
Leyte island which is particularly badly affected - says residents are
becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in
security.
Planes are arriving at the airport, but
bringing little in and only taking people out, and there is little sign
of a co-ordinated relief operation, he says.
Philippine armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC teams were struggling to reach isolated places.
"Although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment, it's
really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring]
the number of goods that are needed."
But Philippine Interior Minister Mar Roxas told the BBC that relief efforts were on track.
"Our first priorities were, number one, to establish law and
order; number two, to bring food and water to the people; and, number
three, to recover the cadaver bags," he said.
"[Now] law and order has been stabilised, the supply of food
and water is beginning - I'm not saying that we're anywhere near it -
[but it] is beginning to be stabilised... and now we are concentrating
on recovery of cadavers as well as on the distribution of the food and
the relief that is coming in."
On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help survivors. It has already released $25m to meet immediate needs.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) says 11.3 million people are in need of vital goods and services,
because of factors such as lack of food, healthcare and access to
education and livelihoods.
The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also launched an appeal.
US and British navy vessels are heading to the Philippines and several nations have pledged millions of dollars in aid.
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