Hanoi, October 02: The death toll in Vietnam from Typhoon Ketsana rose to 99 on Friday, an official said, making it one of the worst disasters to hit the country in recent years.
In addition to the dead, the typhoon has left 14 missing, said the official from the national flood and storm control committee.
The heaviest toll came in the fishing province of Quang Ngai in the area where Ketsana made landfall on Tuesday.
Quang Ngai recorded 27 deaths and there were 21 in Kon Tum, a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes, the official said.
Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons, but this year’s toll exceeds the deaths when Tropical Storm Durian killed at least 70 in the country’s south and Typhoon Xangsane left more than 70 dead in central Vietnam, both in 2006.
Ketsana reached Vietnam after devastating the Philippines, where it killed at least 293 people.
–Agencies