A woman wades through a flooded village after heavy rainfall caused by tropical storm Son Tinh in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam, July 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kham

HANOI (Reuters) - The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by tropical storm Son Tinh rose to 27 on Tuesday, and seven people are still missing, the government’s Disaster Management Authority said.

With a long coastline, Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding, with 389 people killed last year in natural disasters such as floods and landslides, according to government statistics.

Though tropical storm Son Tinh weakened to a tropical depression by the time it reached Vietnam last week, the torrential rains it brought caused heavy flooding and landslides in many parts of northern Vietnam. Some areas in the outskirts of the capital Hanoi remain submerged.

The remote mountainous province of Yen Bai has suffered the heaviest casualties in the latest floods and landslides, with 13 people reportedly killed, 18 injured and four missing, the disaster management agency said in a statement.

The floods and landslides have also damaged and submerged more than 12,000 houses, more than 90,000 hectares (222,395 acres) of crops, mostly paddy, and cut off traffic to several parts of northern Vietnam, the agency said.

Last month, heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides which killed 24 people in the remote and mountainous northern provinces of Lai Chau and Ha Giang.

The agency urged the authorities and people to keep vigilant for more floods and landslides over the coming days.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, heavy rain is forecast to continue in the northern part of the country until early August. </s> Moroccan authorities say 15 people have been killed in a landslide that buried their van under 20 metres of earth, leaving no survivors.

The dead include a six-year-old, according to a local official at the scene of Thursday's tragedy.

Heavy rainfall triggered multiple landslides in the area, blocking a road connecting Casablanca to southern Morocco and hindering rescue efforts.

It took nearly 24 hours for emergency workers to dig out the van. The bodies were dug out overnight and transported to the Marrakech morgue, where the victims' families are now waiting, said the official, who wasn't authorized to be publicly named.

The Interior Ministry announced the deaths Friday, without providing further details. </s> RABAT (AFP) - Moroccan emergency crews pulled 15 bodies from the mud after a rare summer downpour triggered a landslide that buried a minibus, the authorities said on Friday (July 26).

The victims - eleven women, three men and one child - were found in the bus buried about 20m under the masses of earth and rock dislodged by the rain, local authorities said.

"There are no survivors," they said in a statement.

The official toll comes after public broadcaster 2M reported on Friday morning that 16 bodies had been recovered.

The bus was buried on Wednesday evening when a deluge in the Atlas mountains south of Marrakesh triggered flash flooding.

Images released by the authorities show excavators working to dig a path to the bus, more than 24 hours after it was engulfed by the debris.

A weather alert on Tuesday warned of storms in several provinces in the North African country, which rarely receives summer rains.

Investment in Morocco's road network has largely focused on the main transport arteries and many rural areas can be reached only by dirt tracks that are vulnerable to extreme weather.

Every year, nearly 3,500 people are killed on the North African country's roads. </s> BEIJING — At least 32 people are missing after two landslides struck villages in southeastern China following a typhoon.

A rescue operation is underway in Sucun village in China’s Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, after a Wednesday evening landslide. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reports that authorities have rescued 15 people in Sucun but say 26 more are missing.

Another six people are missing in Baofeng village, also in Zhejiang, after a landslide destroyed their homes.

The landslide was apparently triggered by Typhoon Megi, which lashed southeastern China on Wednesday with rain and heavy winds. The storm killed at least five people in China and Taiwan, and forced the cancellation of schools and hundreds of flights.
Heavy rains in Al Haouz Province, Morocco, trigger a landslide, resulting in the deaths of 15 people.