Firefighters refilled their truck's tank using water drawn directly from a river.

The volunteers were travelling to assist with post-typhoon clearing operations when they discovered that the usual refill points had been damaged by severe flooding in Catanduanes, the Philippines.

Footage shows the officers improvising by collecting water from the nearest natural source on November 10.

Fireman Rafael Aguilar said the method took longer than using a hydrant but it was the only option available at the time.

He said: 'The video was taken a day after Super Typhoon Fung-wong struck San Miguel, Catanduanes. After the storm, our team immediately conducted water-flushing operations, but the challenge was finding a place to refill the fire truck.

'There was no running water because of the typhoon's impact. We had no choice but to manually get water from a natural spring in the nearby mountains. We managed to fill the truck, but it took much longer than using a hydrant.

'After that, we continued flushing operations in other villages and returned to the river each time to refill. It became a cycle.'

Fung-wong is the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, with a 1,600-kilometre (994 miles) rain and wind band that covered nearly two-thirds of the archipelagic nation.

Locally known as 'Uwan', it made landfall as a super typhoon in Aurora province on the evening of November 9, prompting the evacuation of nearly a million residents.