Over 50 dead as typhoon batters Vietnam and Cambodia

By Nguyen Van Vinh

HOI AN, Vietnam (Reuters) - Vietnam and Cambodia battled rising floodwaters on Wednesday from a typhoon that has cut a destructive path through South East Asia and killed about 300 people.

A fourth country, Thailand was mobilising troops to provide humanitarian assistance in anticipation of floods from Typhoon Ketsana which first struck the Philippines at the weekend killing 246 people.

Vietnamese government reports said 40 people were killed by Ketsana, which swept into Vietnam late on Tuesday, while Cambodian authorities put the death toll there at 11.

Weather reports said that by late on Wednesday rivers in Vietnam's Quang Nam province could reach a level last seen in 1964.

Floodwaters submerging some old houses in Vietnam's Hoi An city, a UNESCO-recognised World Heritage site, where people had to move around by boat.

The typhoon spared most of Daklak, Vietnam's top coffee-growing province, and officials were still assessing coffee and rubber trees in Gia Lai, the third-largest coffee grower, state-run Vietnam Television said.

The rain dumped on the Central Highlands coffee belt could delay the start of the next coffee harvest by up to 10 days but exports would not be affected, traders said.

The region hit by Ketsana lies far north of Vietnam's Mekong Delta rice basket.