Vietnam typhoon death toll rises to 233 as more bodies found in areas hit by landslides and floods

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.

Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital, Hanoi, were beginning to recede somewhat, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief was in sight.

Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, starting a week of heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam’s mountainous north.

Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.

Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported, but 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.

Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring in heavy equipment to aid in the rescue effort.

Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.

“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.

Coffins were stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst, and villager Tran Thi Ngan mourned at a makeshift altar for family members she had lost.

“It’s a disaster,” she told VTV news. “That’s the fate we have to accept.”

In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days