Vietnam flood kills 43

2005-12-18 13:34

Hanoi - At least 43 people in central Vietnam have been killed in a week of floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains, provincial officials said on Sunday.

Five other people are reported as missing and officials said they expected the toll to rise even as the floodwaters subsided over the weekend.

"The water level at local rivers has been falling since late on Friday, but the reported number of people killed by floods is increasing," said Nguyen Quang Dung from the flood and storm control department of Khanh Hoa province.

This is because the authorities of local districts are slow or they are facing difficulties in counting deaths," Dung said. Khanh Hoa, 1 000km south of Hanoi, has been hardest hit with 22 people dead.

At least two new deaths in nearby Binh Dinh province, came from several cases of small children falling into water, according to Phan Thanh Tuan of the provincial flood and storm control department.

A week of heavy rain and flooding has caused about $9.2m in damages from homes lost to landslides and destroyed crops, national authorities say.

More than 5 000 homes have been flooded and 550 houses completely destroyed by the floodwaters, according to the report released on Saturday by the Central Committee for Floods and Storms.

The storms also destroyed thousands of hectares of rice paddy and cash crops. -Sapa-dpa

- SAPA