Flood deaths in northern Vietnam increase to 22

HANOI –Floods and landslides triggered by downpour over the weekend in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces have killed 22 people and left nine others missing, the country's Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said on Thursday. 

Specifically, 16 residents of Lai Chau province, five of Ha Giang province, and one of Quang Ninh province were killed in landslides, house collapses or flash floods. All the nine people listed as missing by Thursday morning were swept away by floods in Lai Chau. 

The floods and landslides have injured 15 people in Lai Chau and one person in Son La.Since the weekend, the flash floods and landslides in several northern provinces have caused property losses of some 457.8 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 20.1 million U.S. dollars), said the committee. 

In the first five months of this year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed 13 local people, injured 21 others, destroyed or damaged nearly 11,000 houses, damaged 6,100 hectares of rice and other crops, and killed 8,200 cattle and 3,500 poultry, leaving property losses of over 544 billion Vietnamese dong (about 24 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office. Enditem 
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