Vietnam northern floods kill eight, three missing
HANOI, July 5 (Reuters) - Heavy rains triggering floods and landslides in mountainous northern regions of Vietnam have killed at least eight people, destroyed houses and damaged roads, the government said on Sunday.
Landslides killed six people in Bac Kan province as of late Saturday, and cut off roads, telecommunications and power supply to a district after heavy rains fell on Friday night, the government said in a disaster report.
Floods killed two people in the neighbouring provinces of Cao Bang and Ha Giang while three others, including two children, were carried away and remained missing, the report said.
About 300 people were forced to leave homes destroyed in landslides, provincial roads were eroded and small fields of rice, corn and cassava in the three provinces were damaged, the report said, adding that more rains were forecast on Sunday.
The flood-stricken area is far outside Vietnam's main growing region for its key commodities rice and coffee.
The northern Vietnam region lies about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the Central Highlands coffee belt and the Mekong Delta food basket lies even further south.
The casualties and property damage in the Vietnamese area bordering China emerged after torrential rain battered southern China and displaced more than 150,000 people there, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. [ID:nPEK282791] (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Jerry Norton)
