The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan has jumped to 3,621, according to a top Philippine official.

The figure is the first public acknowledgement that the number of fatalities has exceeded an estimate provided by Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who said this week the predicted death toll would be closer to 2,500.

On Thursday, official confirmed deaths nationwide stood at 2,357 after the November 8 typhoon – one of the strongest ever recorded.

But Eduardo del Rosario, director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the new figure was the “latest death toll” from all the country’s provinces.

Preliminary numbers of those missing remained at 22,000, according to the Red Cross.

Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said some victims may have been swept out to sea after a tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas.

President Aquino said initial estimates of 10,000 dead by local officials were overstated by “emotional trauma”.

The president is facing mounting pressure to speed up the distribution of aid.

Survivors have grown increasingly desperate and angry over the relief effort, which has been hindered by looting, a lack of fuel for rescue vehicles and debris-choked roads.

International help is now under way, with the USS George Washington aircraft carrier starting to fly food, water and medical teams to ravaged regions on the islands.

Hundreds of people from Tacloban – carrying any possessions they have managed to retrieve – are waiting for ferries to leave devastated Leyte island.

Sky News’ Mark Stone says most have just have lost everything and have no idea what to do.

On Bantayan Island, to the east, the situation is also desperate –  the international relief effort has yet to reach the area and aid supplies are woefully short.

Glenda Despesemento, in charge of a relief centre at a school, told Sky News that food, medicine and clothes were urgently needed.

Water supplies have also been destroyed and families – sheltering together in classrooms – are having to boil water from a well and share it between them.

“Fifty-seven families stay here from one week until now,” said Ms Despesemento.

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