Hanoi - Floods fueled by a storm off central Vietnam have killed at least 14 people while 12 others remain missing, officials said Tuesday. The storm killed seven people in Dak Lak province, 350 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City, according to Phan Thu Hien, an official of the province's flood and storm department.
"Twelve other people in the province still remain missing and I fear that the death toll will continue to rise," Hien said.
Floods killed four people in neighbouring Lam Dong province and one each in Gia Lai, Phu Yen and Dak Nong provinces, according to the Flood and Storm Control Department.
The floods have also destroyed 202 houses and inundated 29,450 hectares of crops in the central highlands, the largest coffee growing area of Vietnam.
The storm packed wind speed of up to 74 kilometres an hour, but later weakened and was downgraded to a tropical low pressure system, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorology Forecast.
At 7 am Tuesday, the storm was 130 kilometres east of central Quang Binh province with wind speed of 39-49 kilometres an hour and was moving north-west at between 5 and 10 kilometres an hour.
The storm is the second tropical cyclone that has hit Vietnam this year. Tropical Storm Toraji hit the country's northern areas last month but caused minimal damage.
More than 600 people were killed last year in Vietnam by storms and floods, including some 200 in Tropical Storm Chanchu in May 2006.
