At least 37 people may have died in the massive fire that ravaged a shopping mall here on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday as firefighters continued battling pockets of flames 16 hours after the blaze broke. Distraught relatives wailed in grief as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced the firefighters' grim assessment on the victims' fate around 3 a.m., Xinhua reported.

This photo taken on December 23, 2017 shows firefighters attempting to extinguish a fire at a shopping mall in Davao City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Thirty-seven people were believed killed in a fire that engulfed a shopping mall in the southern Philippine city of Davao, local authorities said on December 24. Pic/AFP