Floods caused by torrential rain in Vietnam's central Nghe An province killed 13 people, including 6 aged 8-16, and injured 4 others, according to local newspaper Vietnam News on Tuesday.

The floods, lasting from last Friday to Sunday, also destroyed over 1,000 houses and submerged nearly 9,000 hectares of agricultural land, causing an estimated loss of 200 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly US$12.7 million).

Local authorities have offered 40 tons of rice and 3 tons of kerosene to people in the flood-hit areas.

Late last week, floods killed 4 people and left 1 missing in the northern province of Yen Bai and the central highlands province of Kon Tum.

Natural disasters, mainly storms and floods, killed 232 people, left 38 others missing, injured 187 others, destroyed 4,200 houses and 3,000 hectares of rice, and killed over 2,000 cattle and 170,000 poultry in Vietnam last year, causing a total property loss of over 900 billion VND (some US$57 million).

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)