Death toll from landslides, floods passes 250 in South East Asia

HANOI: The death toll in Vietnam from typhoon Yagi and the landslides and flash floods it triggered rose to 226 on Friday, authorities said, as flood waters receded and search efforts pressed on.

In Thailand the death toll has risen to nine, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said, including six killed in landslides in Chiang Mai province.

Myanmar's national fire service confirmed the country's first Yagi-related deaths after 17 bodies were recovered from flooded villages in the Mandalay region, while more than 50,000 people have been forced from their homes.

Yagi brought a colossal deluge of rain that has inundated a swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering deadly landslides and widespread river flooding.

Vietnam is still reeling from the strongest storm to hit Asia this year which made landfall on its northeastern coast on Saturday.

More than 820 people have been injured and 82 are still missing, according to the state disaster management agency.

Authorities were still searching for 41 people who have not been seen since a flash flood swept away all 37 homes in Nu Village in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai early on Tuesday, the provincial government said.

Forty-six of its inhabitants have been confirmed killed.

At another village in Lao Cai, 115 people previously listed as missing returned safely after taking shelter on a mountain for two days without power and telecoms, the disaster management agency said.

They made tents out of bamboo and tarpaulins after seeing that their village was threatened by landslides, the agency added.

Hundreds of thousands of children have lost their homes and are lacking access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare, the UN children's agency UNICEF said.

About 2 million children have been left without access to education, psychosocial support and school feeding programmes as schools have been damaged and hit by power and water shortages, it added.

"The actual number of schools and students affected across the worst-affected provinces is expected to be much higher," it said.

UNICEF estimates that an initial $15 million is needed to address critical needs of affected children and families.

Myanmar's junta government has set up around 50 camps to help people affected by the floods, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of the social welfare, relief and resettlement ministry told AFP.

The Global New Light of Myanmar, the state-run newspaper, said train services on the main line between Yangon and Mandalay were suspended because some sections were flooded.

Further north, Mae Sai district on the border with Myanmar is suffering its worst floods in 80 years, Suttipong Juljarern, a senior interior ministry official said in a statement.