Death toll reaches 20 as flash floods ravage Vietnam

‘The floods came so quick and gave us so little time to escape. Some managed to run to high ground, but others got swept away in the floods’

Flooding triggered by a tropical storm has killed at least 20 people and left over a dozen missing in northern Vietnam, local media reports said.

Ten people drowned in floods caused by heavy rain in Yen Bai province after Tropical Storm Son Tinh hit the country’s northern region last week, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

In Thanh Hoa province, a flash flood swept through a small village in Lang Chanh district and carried away a dozen stilt houses on Thursday.

“The floods came so quick and gave us so little time to escape,” said local resident Luong Van Hung. “Some managed to run to high ground, but others got swept away in the floods.”

The floods took away a family of four as they were sleeping, said Nguyen Xuan Hong, chairman of Lang Chanh district. Two people were found dead in the debris left by the flooding while the body of the family’s 5-year-old daughter was recovered on Monday morning in a stream 3 kilometers (2 miles) from their home.

A rescue group of 300 people were looking for the fourth member of the family, who is still missing, Hong said.

Casualties were also reported in Phu Tho, Lao Cai, Hoa Binh and Son La provinces, where heavy rain caused landslides and cut off roads.

The rain stopped over the weekend, but the national weather forecast agency said another tropical depression is heading toward northern Vietnam this week.

Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and floods that kill hundreds of people every year.

AP