Xangsane barrels into Vietnam

2006-10-01 14:57

Danang - Typhoon Xangsane barrelled into central Vietnam on Sunday, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee and cutting electricity and many telephone lines after killing scores of people in the Philippines.

Six people died and 51 people were injured in four provinces, according to the first reports released by the Vietnamese rescue operation.

Strong winds uprooted trees and destroyed roofs in the central city of Danang, where the Han river broke its banks for several hours, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Air and train travel across the country was disrupted.

Flash floods, landslides

Deputy prime minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said authorities evacuated around 300 000 people ahead of the storm, which dumped heavy rains on several heavily-populated areas of central Vietnam, including the region's popular tourist beach resorts.

"I think this will be one of the biggest storms to hit Vietnam in the past few decades," Le Huy Ngo, head of the steering committee on flood and storm control, told AFP at the rescue centre in Danang.

"Apart from coping with the storm, we will have to deal with flash floods and landslides."

Deaths in Philippines

Xangsane - which was packing maximum sustained winds of 148km an hour early on Sunday, according to the Hong Kong observatory - has already claimed the lives of at least 76 people in the Philippines.

Millions were without power and clean drinking water in the Philippines capital Manila and the surrounding area, officials said Sunday. Sixty-nine people were still reported missing.

- AFP