Death toll in Myanmar from Typhoon Yagi reaches 74. Dozens of other people are missing

BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll in Myanmar from flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi has reached at least 74, with 89 people missing, Myanmar’s state television said Saturday.

Difficulties in compiling information have raised fears that the number of casualties may be higher.

The new official death toll announced by the country’s military government was more than double the 33 reported on Friday. Typhoon Yagi earlier hit Vietnam, northern Thailand and Laos, killing more than 260 people and causing major damage.

The new totals were announced after state media reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling military council, said that Myanmar was requesting relief aid from foreign countries.

Nearly 240,000 people have been displaced, according to the reports. There were already 3.4 million displaced people in Myanmar at the beginning of September, according to the U.N. refugee agency, mostly because of war and unrest in recent years.

In Myanmar, low-lying areas in the central regions of Mandalay and Bago, as well as eastern Shan state and the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, have been inundated by water since Wednesday.

Min Aung Hlaing and other military officials inspected flooded areas and reviewed rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in Naypyitaw on Friday, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported. Its report said that he instructed officials to contact foreign countries, as other countries affected by the storm did, to receive rescue and relief aid for the victims.

“It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible,” he was quoted as saying.

The exact extent of the damage still wasn’t clear, but there were fears that the death toll may rise