Two killed, three injured in northern Vietnam landslides

Trieu Mui Khe, 83, died when her house in Hoang Su Phi District collapsed. Her relative, Trieu Mui Senh, 42, was severely injured and hospitalized.

The Ha Giang Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control also reported that two other residents of the district, Phan Mui Ha, 28, and her daughter Phan Mui Nghinh, 11, were badly injured.

The identity of the other person who died is yet to be established.

The committee said heavy rains eroded several segments of provincial roads. Traffic in some of the district’s communes was also affected. Several bridges in the district have been heavily damaged, it said.

Authorities are trying to help people recover, warning people in areas vulnerable to landslides, assessing damage done by the rain and landslides, and fix structures to ensure smooth traffic in affected areas, said Nguyen Duc Vinh, head of the Ha Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Ha Giang, around 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the northwest of Hanoi, frequently suffers casualties from flooding and landslides. In May, one child died when a landslide buried a house in Bac Giang District.

Natural disasters, mostly flooding, tropical storms and landslides, killed 181 people and left 37 others missing in Vietnam last year. The disasters caused damage estimated at VND20 trillion ($858 million).