(Adds discovery of 33 landslide survivors by rescue workers)
By Phuong Nguyen
HANOI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Vietnam hunted for survivors on
Thursday after landslides triggered by Typhoon Molave, one of
its strongest storms in decades, lashed a central region already
reeling from weeks of heavy rains that have killed at least 160
people.
Hundreds of soldiers with heavy equipment were deployed to
landslides in remote areas of Quang Nam province, where 19
people were killed and 12 were missing.
At the site of one landslide that buried a village of 53
people, rescue workers pulled 33 survivors from the mud, the
Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
"The whole village was flattened," Ho Thi Ha, who lost her
father in the landslide, told Tuoi Tre.
"There's nothing left".
As well as the dead scores more were still missing, mostly
in landslides, as a result of a succession of storms which have
hammered Vietnam since early October.
The bodies of 12 fishermen were found at sea on Thursday and
the navy was searching for 14 others missing since their boats
sank while trying to come ashore two days earlier, state
broadcaster VTV reported.
"We can forecast the storm path or the amount of rain, but
can't predict when landslides happen," Deputy Prime Minister
Trinh Dinh Dung said in a statement.
Complicating rescue efforts has been the emergence of
un-exploded bombs, revealed by heavy rains. At least seven
American MK82 bombs from the U.S.-Vietnam war were discovered in
the central province of Quang Tri on Thursday, state media said.
More than a million people have been affected for weeks by
the storms, which have caused heavy rains and some of the worst
flooding in years in central Vietnam, pushing relief agencies to
their limits.
Molave hit the Philippines at the weekend and deaths there
from mudslides and floods rose to 16 on Thursday.
It damaged 56,000 homes in Vietnam and left millions without
electricity, with heavy rain expected in the central region
until Saturday.
The typhoon weakened to a tropical depression after making
landfall on Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon, the skies over
the worst affected areas had cleared, VTV said, helping rescue
efforts.