11th September, 2019
Vietnam Authorities, on Wednesday, reported that six people have been killed and one missing after torrential rains swept through the northern region of Vietnam over the past three days.
The Central Steering Committee on National Disaster Prevention and Control reported that the dead include three construction workers in Thai Nguyen province killed after a section of the wall they had been sleeping next to collapsed on them, adding that another person was seriously wounded.
The board added that the flood swept away a family of three, the parents and their 7-year-old daughter in Tuyen Quang province on Tuesday as they were trying to cross a dam, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Torrential downpours have destroyed 70 houses and nearly 1,000 hectares of paddy rice, and have disrupted traffic on some national and inter-provincial roads, the committee said. The provincial education department reported that heavy rains forced 307 schools in Thai Nguyen province to close on Tuesday.
The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said the average rainfall was about 90 millimetres in the region, but some localities have suffered rainfall of up to 646 millimetres over the past three days.
The centre said it was due to the effects of a trough forming over the southern area of the Red River Delta.
The rains are forecast to last until Thursday in the region.
Authorities have warned of flash floods and landslides as the land in the mountainous area have absorbed too much water.
