233 PEOPLE HAVE died in the aftermath of a disastrous typhoon in Vietnam as rescue workers continue to operate in areas that were hit hard by flash floods and landslides.
More than 800 people have been injured in the tropical cyclone and 103 are registered as missing.
Emergency crews have recovered a further 48 bodies from the area of Lang Nu, a small village in northern Lao Cai province that faced a deluge of water, mud and debris coming down from the mountains on Tuesday. Another 39 people are still missing in the area, according to state-run broadcaster VTV.
The rescue and recovery operation is complicated by damage to the roads leading Lang Nu, which has restricted the ability to deliver heavy equipment to help the mission.
Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has promised the search for those still missing will not ease up.
“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said, speaking during a visit to the scene yesterday.
Vietnam is in its rainy season but Typhoon Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the country in decades.
The typhoon made landfall on Saturday with winds reaching up to 149 kilometres per hour.
It had weakened in strength by Sunday but downpours continued.
The typhoon triggered mass flooding and landslides and water levels in rivers are still dangerously high.
It has highlighted fears about how climate change is making storms more intense and reducing the capacity of vulnerable people, such as those who are elderly or homeless, to survive and recover from extreme weather events.
In the capital of Hanoi, residents have faced waist-deep floods as river levels hit a 20-year high.
“This was the worst flooding I have witnessed,” said Nguyen Tran Van, 41, who has lived by Hanoi’s Red River for 15 years.
“I didn’t think the water would rise as quick as it did. I moved because if the water had risen just a bit higher, it would have been very difficult for us to leave,” Van said, speaking to AFP.
In the city of Chiang Rai, rescuers in boats carried 60 schoolchildren to safety in the yesterday after they were trapped by intense flooding. The students had spent a night trapped in a dormitory as the floodwaters surged.
Millions of people across Southeast Asia have been affected overall, with Yagi also bringing torrential rainfall to neighbouring Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Additional reporting by Press Association and AFP
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