Vietnam typhoon death toll jumps to 162: official

04 Oct, 2009

Hanoi, Oct 4 (AFP) The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam jumped to 162 today, an official said, with 13 people still missing.

The official from the national flood and storm control committee in Hanoi, who refused to be named, added "The typhoon also left 616 injured."

The storm affected 14 provinces when it made landfall on Tuesday, according to officials, but many of the deaths occurred in just two: the central fishing province of Quang Ngai and mountainous Kon Tum.

Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons but the disaster is one of the worst to hit the nation in recent years.Ketsana caused devastation across Southeast Asia, killing nearly 300 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam.It also claimed 17 lives in Cambodia and 24 in Laos.