Flooding in Vietnam wreaks havoc as typhoon looms

Floods caused by torrential rains have killed more than 24 in Vietnam and submerged thousands of homes ahead of a typhoon, officials said on Monday.

The northern provinces of the country are on high alert as Typhoon Sarika which pounded Philippines over the weekend kept on a path to hit Vietnam.

"We're worried. We have instructed district governments to outline plans for evacuating people from high-risk areas to cope with the typhoon," disaster official Tran Le Dang Hung told AFP.

Local forecasters expect that Sarika will be the biggest storm of the season, bringing more bad weather to Vietnam.

18 people died in Quang Binh province while another six died in other provinces.

According to the Natural Disaster Prevention, four people have been missing since Friday.

Heavy flooding has also damaged 240,000 buildings in central provinces.

Typhoon Sarika is moving at speed of 15 to 20km/h and may hit Vietnam by Wednesday.

Dozens of tropical storms or typhoons often lash coastal regions of Vietnam, causing widespread destruction.

The tropical storm Rai slammed into the country's central coastline last month, killing five people and submerging 1,700 homes.