Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Xangsane, the strongest to hit Manila since 1995, left at least 16 people dead and 12 missing in the Philippine capital and surrounding areas and left the city without power, the Office of Civil Defense said.

The typhoon, which smashed into the capital with winds of 193 kilometer an hour (121 miles per hour) yesterday after blowing across the main island of Luzon, felled trees, knocked down power lines and caused floods. The death toll is 48 with dozens missing, Associated Press reported from Manila.

Financial markets remain closed and government offices and schools will stay shut to make it easier to clear debris and utility companies to restore power. Manila's commuter trains remained halt by the outages.

Winds and falling trees and other debris cut electric lines in Manila and other areas in Luzon, mostly in the Bicol region southeast of the capital. Lines to Bicol were all down because 40 towers were damaged or destroyed, National Transmission Corp. President Arthur Aguilar said in a phone interview.

Aguilar said National Transmission may restore as much as 60 percent of the capital's supply by 6 p.m. Manila Electric Co. said as little as 30 percent of its lines were still up. The company didn't know how quickly it will restore service, President Jesus Francisco said in a mobile phone text message.

Strongest Typhoon

Xangsane, which means elephant in Laotian, was the strongest typhoon to hit Manila since 1995, Office of Civil Defense spokesman Anthony Golez said in a phone interview.

As many as 936 people were killed across the country in the 1995 storm. President Gloria Arroyo said in a briefing Xangsane, which is out to sea and gaining strength as it heads for Vietnam, was the worst storm in more than 30 years.

The Office of Civil Defense said 60,000 people were ``affected,'' mostly because they had to evacuate their homes.

The deaths resulted from falling trees and billboards, collapsed walls and flooding which capsized at least one fishing boat, according to local media reports. At least one person was killed by electrocution.

Agriculture officials haven't estimated the extent of the damage to fishpens and rice and seaweed farms, Golez said at the same briefing as Arroyo in Manila. The typhoon damaged at least one irrigation dam, he said.

Roads from vegetable-growing highlands north of Manila are being cleared to ensure supply and prices remain stable in the capital, Trade Secretary Peter Favila said at the briefing.

The typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 212 kilometers per hour, was located 575 kilometers west-northwest of Manila at 5 p.m. local time, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center's Web site said.

The storm, with winds gusting to 230 kilometers per hour, is moving west at 20 kilometers per hour and is expected to cross land south of Hue in central Vietnam in two days. Xangsane is a Category 4 storm on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale.

To contact the reporters on this story: Francisco Alcuaz Jr. in Manila at falcuaz@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 29, 2006 06:04 EDT