Typhoon kills 32 in Vietnam

A powerful typhoon slammed into central Vietnam yesterday, killing 32 people and flooding towns and villages along the country's long coastline after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.

The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Ketsana rose to 246 while the economic cost was nearly $100 million, officials said. Philippine authorities braced for another storm that could hit later this week.

Truong Ngoc Nhi, deputy chairman of the People's Committee in Vietnam's Quang Ngai province, said on state-run television the typhoon was the worst in more than three decades.

The official said workers were trying to restore electricity to the Dung Quat oil refinery, which had been due to get back on line today after an outage shut the plant last month.

Many areas of central Vietnam were inundated, including parts of the port city of Danang, state-run Vietnam Television (VTV) footage showed. Homes were damaged and phone lines were down.

At least 32 people were killed in seven coastal and central highland provinces, VTV said. Around 170,000 people were evacuated before the typhoon made landfall. Ketsana hit the Philippines at the weekend.

National carrier Vietnam Airlines cancelled all fights to Danang and schools in the affected area were closed. The airline said it would resume service today.