Vietnam searches for missing after killer typhoon

HANOI, Dec 6 (Reuters) Rescuers searched for scores of missing people after a typhoon swept southern Vietnam with strong winds and rain, killing at least 48 and damaging or destroying thousands of homes, officials said.

Flood control authorities warned south-central provinces that rivers were rising and they should prepare for flooding in the aftermath of Typhoon Durian, which struck the coast on Monday night and last with 120 kph winds.

''Localities should expand their efforts to continue to rescue and find missing people,'' Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, coordinator of storm preparation and relief, said on state-run television.

Hung said they should work to ''restore normal life, especially rebuild houses and mobilise military police and the youth union to help''.

The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression and was heading west across the Gulf of Thailand today.

Vietnam's national flood and storm control centre said in a report today that Typhoon Durian killed at least 48 people in four south-central provinces of Binh Thuan, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Ben Tre and Vinh Long. It said 49 people were missing and that 433 were injured.

There was no immediate estimate of the cost of the damage from the storm, the ninth of the year in Vietnam, but it damaged or destroyed 120,899 houses and sank 696 fishing vessels, the government report said.

Durian, named after a strong-smelling spiky Asian fruit, slammed into the Philippines one notch below a category 5 super-typhoon tomorrow. Disaster officials today raised the death toll to 543 and 740 missing.

Philippine officials decided to extend rescue efforts by 10 days in the villages devastated by mudslides at the foot of Mayon volcano when typhoon Durian hit. Nearly 250,000 houses were damaged while agriculture and infrastructure damage was estimated at 12.25 million dollars.

In the Philippines and Vietnam hundreds or even thousands of people are killed each year in tropical storms and typhoons that batter flimsy dwellings and fishing boats, and also cause flooding and mudslides.

In May, hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen were lost in a typhoon named Chanchu. In October, another typhoon, Xangsane, killed at least 70 and destroyed or submerged hundreds of thousands of homes when it struck the central coastal city of Danang, despite early warnings and preparations.

REUTERS SP BST1011