Flooding kills 9, leaves 2 missing in Vietnam

Heavy rain and water discharge of hydroelectric plants over the past few days have inundated many areas in Vietnam's central and central highlands regions, killing nine people and leaving two others missing, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Saturday.

In the central province of Phu Yen, the recent flooding has killed seven people and left one person missing, and caused property losses of some 247.5 billion Vietnamese dong (11.1 million U.S. dollars).

In the central province of Binh Dinh, one person died, dozens of houses were destroyed or damaged and 1,450 others were submerged. In the central province of Khanh Hoa, a toddler has gone missing after falling into a river in Nha Trang city.

In the central highlands province of Dak Lak, one fisherman died after being swept away by the flood, and hundreds of hectares of rice and other crops were destroyed.

Natural disasters killed or left 172 people missing, injured 324 others, and caused property losses of nearly 13,100 billion Vietnamese dong (587.4 million U.S. dollars) in the first 10 months of this year, said Vietnam's General Statistics Office. Enditem