Five killed, two missing in Vietnam typhoon floods

HANOI: Typhoon winds and rains that lashed central Vietnam killed five people and left two more missing, according to an official toll, with huge tracts of farmland flooded by the deluge.

Typhoon Wutip made landfall in southern China on Saturday with winds gusting up to 128-kms per hour and was downgraded to a tropical storm after swooping up the Gulf of Tonkin on Vietnam´s flank.

Vietnam´s agriculture ministry said on Saturday evening that three people had been killed in central Quang Tri province, with two more fatalities and two people missing in Quang Binh province. More than 70,000 hectares (172,000 acres) of cropland were flooded, the ministry said.