HANOI - Thirteen people have been killed and four remain missing after Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in northern Vietnam, authorities said on Monday.
Five people died and two were missing in Ha Giang province following landslides triggered by heavy rain Monday morning, said Hoang Hai Ly, chief of the Communist Party in Hoang Su Phi district.
Heavy rain also caused landslides in Lang Son province, which borders China, killing five people. Three others were killed by lightning, the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control said Monday.
More than 500 houses were damaged and 4,000 hectares of rice submerged, the committee said. The storm brought rainfall of between 250 and 550 millimetres for the past three days in the northern region.
The typhoon slammed southern China and the Philippines with torrential rain and gales before hitting Vietnam. At least 94 people have been reported killed in the Philippines. Eighteen were killed in China with six missing and 317 injured as of Sunday.
Vietnam lost an estimated 28 trillion dong (1.3 billion United States dollars), equivalent to 1% of gross domestic product (GDP), due to natural disasters in 2013, the government said.