Typhoon Yagi leaves 59 dead, missing in Vietnam

Hanoi, Sep 9 (IANS) Typhoon Yagi and consequent landslides and floods have left 59 people dead and missing in Vietnam's northern region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Monday.

The natural disasters also injured 247 people, including 157 in Quang Ninh province and 40 in Hai Phong City; sank 25 unmanned vessels, mostly fishing boats; damaged over 113,000 hectares of rice and more than 22,000 hectares of other crops; damaged or swept away 1,500 aquaculture cages; killed 190,000 fowls; and uprooted or damaged nearly 121,700 trees, reports Xinhua, quoting Vietnam news agency.

A steel bridge in Vietnam's northern Phu Tho province collapsed on Monday morning, causing 10 automobiles and two motorbikes to fall into the Red River and leaving 13 people missing.

According to local media reports, 21 people in Cao Bang province were killed and missing by landslides, and 15 people in Lao Cai province faced the same fate.

Typhoon Yagi was the strongest storm to hit Vietnam's northern region in the past 30 years, according to the ministry.

Yagi, which means goat or the constellation of Capricornus in Japanese, is the eleventh named storm. It is one of only four Category 5 super typhoons recorded in the China Sea, alongside Pamela in 1954, Rammasun in 2014 and Rai in 2021.

Yagi originated from a low-pressure area that formed on August 30, approximately 540 km. On September 1, the system was classified as a tropical storm and named Yagi by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

--IANS