By Xinhua
Hanoi : At least 45 people have been killed, 61 injured and seven others missing in heavy floods caused by torrential rain in Vietnam’s central region, local media reported Friday.
Quang Nam province suffered the biggest human loss with 20 deaths. Among the other provinces, Quang Ngai province reported 10 casualties while six deaths were reported in Binh Dinh province and four in Thua Thien Hue province.
The floods also inundated some 376,000 houses, damaged over 2,500 hectares of paddy crops and isolated some areas in the region. The loss of property is said to be in trillions of Vietnamese dong.
Meanwhile, the National Hydro-Meteorology Forecast Centre said that the region might face a new wave of flooding, as it forecast fresh spell of torrential rain between Nov 16 and 25.
Natural disasters including typhoons and hailstorms in Vietnam had killed 339 people, left 274 persons missing, and injured about 2,065 others in 2006. The estimated losses totalled 18.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly $1.2 billion) that year.