Six people have been killed and three were missing after heavy rains hit central Vietnam, authorities said Monday, while six fishermen were reported missing at sea, dpa reported.
Among the dead were a kindergarten teacher returning from work and a soldier working on road repairs who were swept away by swollen rivers, the National Steering Committee on Flood and Storm Control reported.
The committee said an area of low atmospheric pressure had brought rainfall of between 200 and 655 millimeters over the first three days of October in the country's central provinces.
In addition to the three people reported missing on land, the newspaper Thanh Nien reported a fishing boat with a crew of six had disappeared at sea.
More than 8,000 people have been evacuated. Several passenger trains have been brought to a standstill by floods in the central city of Dong Hoi, and streets in Hue, on the coast of central Vietnam, are reportedly under one metre of water.
The committee reported that the reservoir of the Ho Ho hydroelectric dam in Ha Tinh province had overflowed, and the floods had swept away one of its turbines.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, disasters related to the annual heavy rains and floods have killed an average of 750 people for each of the past 10 years, and incurred costs equivalent to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product.