HANOI, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Flash floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain over the weekend in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces have killed 15 people, and left 11 others missing, the country's Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said on Tuesday.
Specifically, three people in Ha Giang province were killed in house collapses, and 12 others in Lai Chau province died in landslides, house collapses or flash floods.
All the 11 people listed as missing by Tuesday morning were in Lai Chau, including seven in Sin Ho district.
The floods and landslides have also injured seven people in Lai Chau, destroyed 83 houses and damaged 1,470 others, damaged over 1,200 hectares of rice and other crops, killed 97 cattle and 5,400 fowls, swept away some bridges, and caused traffic congestions on many national and provincial roads.
Since the weekend, the flash floods and landslides in the seven northern provinces have caused property losses of some 141 billion Vietnamese dong (6.2 million U.S. dollars), said the committee.
In the first five months of this year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed 13 local people, injured 21 others, destroyed or damaged nearly 11,000 houses, damaged 6,100 hectares of rice and other crops, and killed 8,200 cattle and 3,500 poultry, leaving property losses of over 544 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 24 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office.
