125 dead, missing after storms hit northern Vietnam
HANOI: At least 125 people were dead or missing in mountainous
northern Vietnam on Sunday after heavy rains brought by tropical storm
Kammuri triggered widespread flash floods and landslides.
Thousands of troops, police and emergency services were rushed to
flooded towns in the poor and heavily deforested region to deliver
drinking water, food and medicines to people stranded on the roofs of
their houses.
By early Sunday, two days after the rains first hit the area, 86
people were confirmed dead and 39 listed as missing, according to
reports compiled by AFP from central and provincial emergency relief
agencies.
One train engine was overturned by floods, but no one was injured, on
the railway line between the capital Hanoi and Lao Cai near the Chinese
border, while the parallel highway was cut by landslides in several
places.
About 300 homes were destroyed and 3,500 damaged by the floods, which
had also wiped out about 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of crops,
authorities said.
“We have mobilised all forces, including the military and police, to
overcome the effects of the floods,” Bui Quang Vinh, Communist Party
chief of the worst-hit Lao Cai province, told state broadcaster VTV by
telephone.
Sunday, AFP |