Locals used old refrigerators to ferry nurses to a hospital as Typhoon Saola spawned heavy floods in the Philippines.

Kind villagers carried staff and nurses of Bago City Hospital on the old appliances, which they used as makeshift boats to cross the deluge in Negros Occidental province on August 30.

Almira Torres, a medical technician at the hospital, said: 'It reminded me of when we were kids that used to play in the flood. It was tough going to work, but we just enjoyed the ride.'

Hospital staff said the building will undergo disinfection once the floods subside.

Typhoon Saola locally known as Goring affected more than 200,000 individuals in the Philippines with some 35,000 fleeing to evacuation centres because their homes were destroyed.

It swept through Hong Kong on September 1 before slamming into the southern Chinese coast the following day. More than 900,000 were moved to safety before the storm hit.