Updated October 13, 2017 20:09:06

Floods and landslides have killed at least 54 people in Vietnam and left another 39 missing since a tropical depression battered the country earlier this week, officials say.

The heavy rain in the central and northern regions has disrupted travel in some areas, limiting the rescue attempts for the missing.

The storm that hit central Vietnam on Tuesday also injured 31 people and submerged more than 30,000 houses, damaged infrastructure, crops and livestock, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said in a statement.

Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline, killing hundreds of people in Vietnam each year.

A typhoon wrecked havoc across central provinces just last month.

Photo: Hoa Binh province declared a state of emergency and opened gates to discharge water at Vietnam's largest hydroelectric dam. (Reuters: Kham)

The floods that hit Vietnam this week are the worst in years, agriculture minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong told state-run Vietnam Television.

Photo: The heavy rain has disrupted travel in some areas. (Reuters: Kham)

Hoa Binh province in the north-west declared a state of emergency and opened eight gates to discharge water at Hoa Binh dam, Vietnam's largest hydroelectric dam, for the first time in years, VTV reported.

Nineteen people from four neighbouring households in the province were buried alive early on Thursday (local time) after a landslide struck around midnight on Wednesday, but only nine bodies have been found, the disaster agency said in a report.

Photo: Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline. (Reuters: Kham)

Disaster official Nguyen Thi Lien from northern Yen Bai province, where six people have died from the floods, said 580 soldiers and police and more than 2,000 residents have been mobilised to search for another 16 still missing in the province.

Some 317 homes have collapsed in floods and landslides this week, while more than 34,000 other houses have been submerged or damaged.

Photo: More than 100,000 animals have been killed or washed away by the floods in Vietnam. (AP: Vietnam News Agency)

More than 22,000 hectares of rice have also been damaged and about 180,000 were animals killed or washed away.

Floods have also affected seven of 77 provinces in Thailand, Vietnam's neighbour to the west, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said.

More than 480,000 hectares of agricultural land in Thailand have been hit, the department said.

Photo: Rains caused landslides and flooding mostly in northern and central Vietnam. (AP: Vietnam News Agency)

Reuters/AP

Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, weather, vietnam, thailand, asia

First posted October 13, 2017 16:52:54