Vietnam flood toll reaches 24, mostly children....

 

Flooded houses are seen here in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Binh, on October 2. The toll from the worst floods to hit Vietnam in a decade has reached 24, most of them children, the government disaster authority said on Monday, as it reported a further six deaths

The Hanoi-based national flood and storm control committee said that 21 of those killed have been children who drowned in floodwaters.

The flooding, which began in mid-September and is expected to last until late October, has so far inundated nearly 60,000 homes in the country and damaged more than 6,900 hectares (17,000 acres) of rice fields.

Vietnam is the world's number two rice exporter and the Mekong Delta in the south accounts for half the country's production.

Total losses are estimated at more than 44 million dollars, the committee added.

Unusually severe monsoon floods have killed more than 250 people in Thailand and about 170 in Cambodia, and deluged vast swathes of paddy fields in the region.