The number of people killed by Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam has risen to 226 with another 104 missing, according to the government’s disaster management agency.
The storm, which is the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades, made landfall on Saturday with winds of up to 92mph, causing flash floods and landslides.
Officials said the northern province of Lao Cai had suffered the heaviest casualties, with 98 dead and 81 missing.
Earlier Vietnam’s VNExpress newspaper said more than 800 had been injured.
Fatalities peaked earlier this week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in Lao Cai on Tuesday.
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A family works to clean the mud in Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam. Pic: reuters
Hundreds of rescue workers mounted a search for survivors but 53 villagers remained missing on Thursday morning, VNExpress reported.
Flooding in the capital, Hanoi, has been reportedly the worst in two decades and has led to widespread evacuations.
Excess waters from the Red River have receded slightly but many areas are still inundated.
People were seen wading through muddy brown water above their knees to make their way along one street, with some still wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets after abandoning their vehicles along the way.
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A flooded area in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand. Pic: Reuters
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Others paddled along the road in small boats as rubbish drifted by, while one man pushed his motorbike toward drier ground in an aluminium craft.
Yagi weakened on Sunday but downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.
Floods and landslides have caused most of the deaths, many of them in Lao Cai, which borders China and is home to the popular trekking destination of Sapa.
On Monday, a steel bridge collapsed in Phu Tho province over the engorged Red River, sending 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes into the water.
A bus carrying 20 people was also swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, at least two people were killed and hundreds stranded after heavy rains swept through two northern provinces, swelling rivers, inundating settlements and triggering mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday.
Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters proe more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.
