Death toll in Vietnam floods, landslides on steady rise; 54 dead, 39 missing

Hanoi: Floods and landslides have killed at least 54 people in Vietnam and left another 39 missing since a tropical depression hit the country earlier this week, officials said Friday.

The heavy rain in the central and northern regions has disrupted travel in some areas, limiting the rescue attempts for the missing.

The storm that hit central Vietnam on Tuesday also injured 31 people and submerged more than 30,000 houses, damaged infrastructure, crops and livestock, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said in a statement Friday.

Disaster official Nguyen Thi Lien from northern Yen Bai province, where six people have died from the floods, said 580 soldiers and police and more than 2,000 residents have been mobilized to search for another 16 still missing in the province.

"Transportation to and from southern District of Tram Tau was cut off by landslides and floods, making it impossible to send additional search forces to look for six people still missing there," Lien said adding the search operations in that district now only rely on local military, police and villagers.

Another tropical depression has upgraded to tropical storm, Khanun, which swept through northern island of Luzon of the Philippines early Friday morning and is moving to the South China Sea toward Vietnam, according to the national weather forecasters.

The storm could bring more rains and misery to the central and northern regions already soaked with rain and floodwaters.

Floods and storms kill hundreds of people in Vietnam each year.