Vietnam ordered the evacuation on Friday of thousands of people in its central and northern regions to avoid flash floods and landslides triggered by prolonged torrential rains that have killed at least 27, according to Reuters. Flooding hit the key coffee-growing region of the Central Highlands and four central coastal provinces, killing at least eight in Binh Thuan province and four in Nghe An province, a government report said. State-run Vietnam Television said eight people, including two children, had died when landslides buried their homes in the mountainous northern province of Cao Bang on Friday morning. The channel showed footage of rescuers pulling the body of a baby girl from the mud. Six drowned in four other provinces and one in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. The floods also displaced thousands of people, inundated 5,000 houses, submerged nearly 40,000hectares (100,000 acres) of mainly rice and corn crops and blocked traffic.
