Floods and landslides grip Vietnam, kill 43

Floods and landslides caused by a tropical depression have killed at least 43 people, left 34 others missing and damaged homes and crops in northern and central Vietnam, officials said yesterday.

Residents standing at an end of a destroyed bridge in the northern province of Yen Bai. Pic/AFP

The storm injured 21 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,000 houses, submerged 16,740 other homes and damaged infrastructure and crops in six central and northern provinces, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said. In the hardest-hit northern province of Hoa Binh, 17 people died and 15 others were missing. The deaths included four families whose houses were buried in a landslide early Thursday while they were sleeping, killing nine and leaving nine others missing, disaster management official Tran Anh Tuan said.

"More than 250 soldiers, police, militiamen and villagers have been mobilized for the search," Tuan said. "But they are facing difficulties because of the huge volume of soil, mud and rocks that buried the houses." Evacuations were ordered for 2,00,000 people in Ninh Binh province in the north. The tropical depression hit central Vietnam on Tuesday and brought heavy rains. More rains were forecast for parts of the northern and central regions Thursday as a cold spell moves from southern China to Vietnam, the disaster agency said in a statement. Vietnam is prone to floods and storms, which kill hundreds of people each year.