Flash floods kill 2 in central Vietnam

Rescue forces found the bodies of Thien and Le Thi Bien, 75, on Friday morning but Ha Thi Bien, 28 and Vi Thi Huyen Tran, 4, are still missing.

It was raining heavily in Lang Chanh District in the north central province of Thanh Hoa on Thursday night and the ensuing flash floods caught residents off guard as they were sleeping.

The floods also demolished two other houses in the area and injured three others.

With more flash floods and landslides deemed likely, 45 families with 190 people in Lang Chanh have been evacuated.

Torrential rains have also flooded isolated many areas in the nearby Ha Tinh and Nghe An Provinces, as well as Quang Ninh Province, home to Ha Long Bay. Dozens of families in areas threatened by landslides are being evacuated.

Rain pours as water rises up to the second floor of a market in Quang Ninh Province. Photo by VnExpress/Binh Minh

The Son Tinh storm, which turned into a tropical depression as it made landfall in central Vietnam on Wednesday night, is forecast to unleash heavy downpours in the entire northern and north central regions until late Friday night.

The National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center has cautioned that rivers in the central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An could flood in the coming days.

Son Tinh is the third storm that has formed in the East Sea, known internationally as the South China Sea, this year.