Typhoon Xangsane killed at least 120 people in the Philippines and Viet Nam, left tens of thousands homeless and caused millions of dollars damage, officials said yesterday.

The typhoon swept fierce winds and rain into Viet Nam's central coast at the weekend after leaving a trail of destruction in the northern and central Philippines, including the capital, Manila.

Viet Namese officials said at least 40 died and four were missing in several central provinces and the resort city of Danang, Viet Nam's fourth largest city of about 1 million, which took the brunt of the typhoon when it hit on Sunday.

The typhoon ripped off roofs, felled trees and power lines and blew down houses.

A fisherman in Danang said of his anguish at being unable to save his brother, whose body was found yesterday.

"The waves were so big. I saw my brother's ship flipped but the wind was so strong I couldn't dare to save him because I could certainly die too," said Nguyen Khue, older brother of Nguyen Phung, a squid fisherman.

An official at the Danang Flood and Storm Control Committee said 22 people died in Danang and four were missing. She said the accounting for the dead was not yet complete.

The committee said 6,256 houses collapsed, more than 220,000 were damaged and almost 41,000 were still submerged. It estimated storm damage at nearly US$300 million.

State-run Viet Nam Television reported 3,000 people injured across the central region.

Typhoon Xangsane, which means "elephant" in the Lao language, killed 78 people and injured 81 in the Philippines, disaster officials said yesterday. A further 69 people were missing after the typhoon ripped through the archipelago last week.

A police spokesman said the toll could climb close to 150 and the government estimated damage of at least US$26 million to property, infrastructure, crops and fisheries.

The storm weakened after crossing into Viet Nam and moved west across Laos and into Thailand.

Many of an estimated 300,000 people who were evacuated in Viet Nam's central coastal provinces to safer locations before the typhoon struck returned to find their houses had been destroyed.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.

Another tropical storm, with maximum winds of 85 kph and gusts of up to 100 kph, was moving towards the northern tip of the Philippines, weather forecasters said.

Source: China Daily