A powerful typhoon helped capsize an oil tanker carrying close to 1.5 million litres of industrial fuel off the coast of the Philippines.
MT Terra Nova sank off Limay town in Bataan province early on Thursday and rescuers saved 15 of 16 crew members, just after Typhoon Gaemi passed through the region.
Meanwhile officials in Taiwan are searching for a sunken freight ship with nine crew members.
The Tanzania-flagged freighter had been off the southern port city of Kaohsiung when Taiwan was struck by Typhoon Gaemi.
The powerful storm made landfall at around 4pm Wednesday in northern Taiwan, causing flooding alongside the least 22 dead in the Philippines.
Three people were also killed in Taiwan, with more than 220 reported injured.
Offices and schools in the country were closed for the second consecutive day on Thursday and people were urged to stay home and away from the coastline.
In the Philippines, the death toll rose due to drownings and landslides, and at least three people are missing, according to police.
Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said coast guard personnel could not immediately reach the area to contain a possible oil spill after the capsizing of the MT Terra Nova due poor weather conditions.
While Gaemi, called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in that archipelago it enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered authorities to speed up efforts to deliver food and other aid to isolated rural villages.
“People there may not have eaten for days," Mr Marcos said in a televised emergency meeting.
In the densely populated region around the Philippine capital, government work and school classes were suspended after rains flooded many areas.
The storm's effects were expected to continue into Friday as it moved in a northwestern direction toward mainland China.
In Fujian province on China's east coast, ferry routes were suspended on Wednesday and all train service will be halted on Thursday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said.
