MANILA (AFP) - At least 17 children and infants were among 30 people killed after a towering flash flood hit one of the Philippines' largest provincial centers, the government said Saturday.

   The victims were swept away after the Pangi river in the southern city of Davao burst its banks on the night of June 28, said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

   At one point during the night, some parts of the city of 1.15 million people were under a record 10 feet (three metres) of water, the government agency added.

   Though the floods subsided by the next day, a baby boy remains missing, according to the latest updated tally.

   Davao and nearby areas of the southern island of Mindanao saw heavier-than-usual rains in the past month, climatologists say.

   Widespread flooding lasting several weeks also killed 12 people around the Mindanao city of Cotabato earlier in June, while a series of storms in the country's north killed 48 other people in May and June, the council said.