HANOI • Vietnam hunted for survivors yesterday after landslides triggered by Typhoon Molave, one of its strongest storms in decades, lashed a central region already reeling from weeks of heavy rain that led to at least 160 deaths.
Hundreds of soldiers with heavy equipment were deployed to landslides in remote areas of Quang Nam province, where 19 people were killed and 12 were missing.
At the site of one landslide that buried a village of 53 people, rescue workers pulled 33 survivors from the mud, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
"The whole village was flattened," Ms Ho Thi Ha, who lost her father in the landslide, told Tuoi Tre. "There's nothing left."
As well as the dead, scores more were still missing, mostly in landslides, as a result of a succession of storms which has hammered Vietnam since early this month.
The bodies of 12 fishermen were found at sea yesterday and the navy was searching for 14 others who went missing after their boats sank while trying to come ashore two days earlier, state broadcaster VTV reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said in a statement: "We can forecast the storm path or the amount of rain, but can't predict when landslides happen."
Complicating rescue efforts was the emergence of unexploded bombs uncovered by heavy rain. At least seven American MK82 bombs from the United States-Vietnam war were discovered in the central province of Quang Tri yesterday, state media said.
Over a million people have been affected for weeks by the storms, which have caused heavy rain and some of the worst flooding in years in central Vietnam, pushing relief agencies to their limits.
Molave hit the Philippines at the weekend and deaths in the country from mudslides and floods rose to 16 yesterday.
The typhoon damaged 56,000 homes in Vietnam and left millions without electricity, with heavy rain expected in the central region until tomorrow.
The typhoon weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall on Wednesday and by yesterday afternoon, the skies over the worst-affected areas had cleared, VTV said, helping rescue efforts.
REUTERS
