Floods, storms kill 36 in Vietnam's Mekong Delta
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-12 10:42

The death toll from flooding in Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta has claimed 27 lives, while another nine people were killed when heavy storms lashed the region, a disaster relief official said today.

"Twenty-seven people have died in the floods since the beginning of the month, of whom 23 were children," an official of the Ho Chi Minh City-based regional flood and storm control committee said.

The worst affected provinces were Dong Thap, An Giang, Long An and Kien Giang, which all border Cambodia, he said.

"In these provinces we have had to evacuate 2238 families from their homes, while 16,609 other households have been affected by floodwaters and thousands of hectares of rice fields have been partially destroyed."

The death toll was expected to increase as water levels on the Mekong River and its tributaries continued to rise, he said.

The Mekong Delta, which is Vietnam's largest rice-growing region and home to more than 12 million people, is prone to seasonal flooding that often causes widespread devastation and loss of human life.

In 2002 about 170 people, the majority of them children, died during severe flooding in the area.

Meanwhile, heavy storms that swept across the Mekong Delta last week left nine children dead, all killed by falling debris, the official said.

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