Typhoon death tolls rise to 52 in Vietnam

Typhoon Xangsane, which began to strive Vietnam's central region on Sunday, and floods triggered by it have killed 52 local people, left 7 missing and injured 534 others as of Wednesday, the country's central Flood and Storm Prevention Committee reported.

Central Da Nang city, the first locality hit by the typhoon, has suffered the biggest human losses with 22 deaths and four missing, the committee said, adding that some other localities with fatalities include the central provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Tri, Quang Binh, Nghe An, Thua Thien Hue and Ha Tinh.

The typhoon, the 6th one striking Vietnam this year, also damaged nearly 259,100 houses, uprooted thousands of trees and electric poles, and inundated many hectares of subsidiaries crops and aquaculture ponds in the localities, causing total property losses of nearly 10 trillion Vietnamese dong (over 628.9 million U. S. dollars).

Before affecting Vietnam, Xangsane, which means "elephant" in Lao language, had killed 197 people, and left at least 22 others missing in the Philippines.

Source: Xinhua