Death toll mounts in storm-struck Vietnam, Philippines
Typhoon Ketsana has killed 86 people in Vietnam and at least 277 people in Philippines, according to government officials, as the Southeast Asian region struggled to cope with the havoc wrought by landslides and rising flood waters.
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AFP - The death toll in Vietnam from Typhoon Ketsana rose to 86 on Thursday, an official said.
The official from the national flood and storm control committee said 24 of the deaths occurred in the mountainous inland province of Kon Tum.
Across the central region there were 16 people missing and 124 injured, the official said.
The victims in Kon Tum had mostly died in landslides, when their houses collapsed after being rattled by the storm, or by drowning in floodwaters, local government official Ha Ban, president of the Kon Tum People's Committee, said on state television Wednesday night.
Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons, but this year's toll exceeds the deaths when Tropical Storm Durian killed at least 70 in the country's south and Typhoon Xangsane left more than 70 dead in central Vietnam, both in 2006.
Ketsana hit Vietnam on Tuesday after devastating the Philippines, where it killed at least 277 people.
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