Manila - (AFP) - A landslide killed one person and left three others missing in the southern Philippines , police said Thursday, raising the death toll to at least 33 in the country, which is experiencing flash floods caused by torrential rains.

The authorities are continuing searches to find at least twenty people, following heavy rains that fell during the Christmas holidays and caused floods and landslide accidents in areas in the center and south of the country.

Police said four people were fishing on a stream in the eastern province of Davao on the southern island of Mindanao on Wednesday when a landslide buried them.

The body of a 62-year-old man was found and the search is still underway to locate the other three people, Mati police chief Ernesto Gregory told AFP.

"There was heavy rain in the mountains and they were fishing in a lake when a landslide happened," he said.

The rains in the Philippines destroyed hundreds of homes and more than five thousand hectares of agricultural land, prompting tens of thousands of people to seek shelter in evacuation centers, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.

Most of the deaths were recorded in the western province of Misamis on the island of Mindanao, where 15 people died from drowning or in landslides caused by rain.

The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Experts have warned that rain and winds will intensify as the planet warms.