At least 50 dead after Vietnam is ‘bombarded’ by tropical storm

THE typhoon that ravaged the Philippines with landslides and torrential rain slammed into Vietnam’s southern coast yesterday as a tropical storm, killing at least 50 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Tropical Storm Durian, believed to have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in the Philippines, blew tin sheets off houses in Vietnam and caused the collapse of homes in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, some 78 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, that left 23 dead, said Pham Nhat Quang, an official from the provincial military command.

“The areas where the eye of the storm passed through looked like they were just bombarded,” said Nguyen Van Tu, a local official in Ben Tre province, where 17 people were killed, over 4,000 houses were destroyed and 26,000 others damaged.