United Nations, Nov 12 (IANS): The UN humanitarian relief office Monday released $25 million in response to the devastation caused by a super typhoon which ripped through the Philippines over the weekend.

John Ging, director of the Operation Division for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the funds were released from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund ( CERF) "to enable humanitarian agencies to mobilise their response quickly", Xinhua reported.

As one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, the super typhoon Haiyan cut a path of destruction through several central islands across the Philippines, leaving the seaside city of Tacloban in ruins and leading to an early estimates of as many as 10,000 dead, reports said.

Haiyan, the biggest typhoon recorded in almost a century, has affected nearly 9.8 million people and displaced an estimated 660, 000 people, Ging said at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

"The devastation has been huge ... all of our efforts are on mobilising very quickly and on responding on an equally massive scale," Ging said.