Typhoon Xangsane heads for Vietnam; Manila mops up

MANILA, Sep 29 (Reuters) Typhoon Xangsane churned towards Vietnam today after killing 31 people in the Philippines, injuring hundreds and leaving a trail of widespread destruction.

In Manila, the stock exchange, currency market, schools and government offices remained closed for a second day as a huge mopping-up operation began. Slightly more than half of the main island of Luzon was still without power.

''The damage is city-wide, we have to work even in the side streets, in the barangays (villages) to restore order and normalcy,'' Mayor Lito Atienza said, adding that the storm was the worst to hit the city in over 35 years.

Xangsane gained strength over the South China Sea, packing sustained winds of up to 140 kph (87 mph) and gusts of 170 kph, after roaring through Manila yesterday.

The typhoon, travelling northwest, was expected to hit the central Vietnamese coastline at around 2330hrs IST tomorrow, according to www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung put the army on alert, and residents in the resort city of Danang were told to prepare for evacuation.

The storm was likely to skirt Vietnam's key coffee-growing region and little damage to the crop was expected. The southeast Asian country is the world's second-largest coffee exporter after Brazil.

DESTRUCTIVE PATH Xangsane's centre is currently around 600 km northwest of Manila but the typhoon's destructive path was still visible to the city's 12 million residents with uprooted trees, toppled cars, billboard frames and electrical poles blocking streets.

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