This Philippine mall was heavily damaged by Typhoon Haiyan. Looting and gunfire have broken out and relief efforts have been slow getting started.

TACLOBAN, Philippines — Mobs overran a rice warehouse on the island worst hit by the Philippine typhoon, setting off a wall collapse that killed eight people and carting off thousands of sacks of the grain, while security forces today exchanged gunfire with an armed gang.

The incidents in or close to the storm-ravaged city hosting international relief efforts add to concerns about the slow pace of aid distribution and that parts of the disaster zone are descending into chaos.

Five long days after Typhoon Haiyan wasted the eastern seaboard of the Philippines, the cogs of what promises to be a massive international aid effort are beginning to turn, but not quickly enough for the some 600,000 people displaced, many of them homeless, hungry and thirsty.

“There’s a bit of a logjam to be absolutely honest getting stuff in here,” said U.N. staffer Sebastian Rhodes Stampa against the roar of a C-130 transport plane landing behind him at the airstrip in Tacloban, one of the hardest-hit cities.

“It’s almost all in country — either in Manila or in Cebu, but it’s not here. We’re going to have a real challenge with logistics in terms of getting things out of here, into town, out of town, into the other areas,” he said. “The reason for that essentially is that there are no trucks, the roads are all closed.”

Planes, ships and trucks were all on their way to the region, loaded with generators, water purifying kits and emergency lights — vital equipment needed to sustain a major relief mission. Airports were reopening in the region, and the U.S. military said it was installing equipment to allow the damaged Tacloban airport to operate 24-7.

Tacloban’s mayor, Alfred Romualdez, urged residents to flee the city because local authorities were having trouble providing food and water and maintaining order, The New York Times reported. He said the city was in desperate need of trucks to distribute relief shipments that were accumulating at the city’s airport as well as equipment to pull decaying corpses from the rubble.

Eight people were crushed to death when the mob stormed a rice warehouse around on Tuesday and carried off thousands of sacks of grain, according to National Food Authority spokesman Rex Estoperez.

Gunfire broke out close to the San Juanico bridge today between security forces and armed men, but the circumstances were unclear.