Typhoon Lekima pounds Vietnam, 3 dead

Typhoon Lekima smashed into central Vietnam overnight, flooding thousands of homes, disrupting air travel and leaving at least three people dead and 58 injured, officials said Thursday.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 117 kilometres (72 miles) an hour, the typhoon made landfall in provinces where tens of thousands of people had been evacuated in advance.

Two people drowned and a 13-year-old boy perished while trying to anchor fishing boats, the Hanoi-based flood and storm control committee said in a statement. Disaster officials had said a man was killed while tightening a roof before the storm, but he was not counted in their typhoon toll.

At least 58 people had been injured in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces, which were the epicentre of the typhoon. They were all in a stable condition, provincial disaster officials said