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Tuesday 29 September 2009

Typhoon Hits Vietnam As Death Toll Soars

Typhoon Ketsana has hit Vietnam's central coast - as the storm's death toll in the Philippines rose to 240.

Ketsana was battering the Vietnamese province of Quang Nam with winds up to 90mph, unleashing floods and killing at least three people. The storm made landfall 37 miles south of Danang, according to the National Weather Centre. TV footage showed trees toppled onto roads and corrugated metal and other debris tossed around in the tourist hub - the country's fourth-largest city.

Provincial disaster official Nguyen Minh Tuan said two people in the province were killed by falling trees and another died after being struck by an electrical line. The typhoon was forecast to move west at about 12km/ph towards central Vietnam. Stormy weather in the past week has already killed 18 people in the area, including deaths from drowning, electrocution and accidents, an official said.

Over the weekend, Ketsana caused havoc in the Philippines as a weaker tropical storm. It dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, fuelling the worst flooding to hit the country in 40 years. Aside from a rising number of deaths after flash floods in and around capital city Manila, nearly 400,000 have been left homeless.Troops, police and volunteers have already rescued more than 12,359 people, but unconfirmed reports of more deaths abound, Philippine defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. (Sky News)