Typhoon Yagi weakens after killing 14 in Vietnam

Asia’s most powerful typhoon this year, Yagi, has killed 14 people in Vietnam and injured 176 others after making landfall in the country, as per Vietnamese state media.

The Super Typhoon has now downgraded to a tropical depression, still, the authorities have alerted about risks of flooding and landslides as the storm moves towards the west.

The Indo-Pacific Tropical Cyclone Warning Center stated that the storm hit Hai Phong and Quang Ninh provinces in Vietnam with high winds of up to 203km/h (126mph).

Yagi lifted roofs and uprooted trees in the country's capital, Hanoi, leading to power outages in the region, according to BBC.

Vietnamese official media reported that three people were killed due to the storm in northern Quang Ninh province on Saturday and another person died in Hai Duong.

BBC also reports that four family members died in a landslide incident amid Yagi’s landfall in the Hoa Binh province, a mountainous region, around midnight on Saturday.

Among the family members, a 51-year-old man managed to escape when the hillside collapsed on his house but his wife, daughter and two grandchildren died.

AFP news agency reports that the four bodies were recovered later.

Several areas of the port city, Hai Phong, were submerged under 1.6ft of flood waters on Sunday as Yagi swept the town, damaging power lines and electrical poles, AFP reports.

The city, housing two million people, faced the brunt of the storm with prolonged power outages.

Over 50,000 residents were evacuated from coastal areas of Vietnam as authorities emphasised and issued a warning to remain indoors as the typhoon raged in the country, BBC states.

Calm returned on Sunday morning to Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million, after heavy winds and rains overnight caused widespread damage, leaving toppled trees scattered across the city centre and other neighbourhoods.

Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened after closing on Saturday morning, state media said.

The government said Yagi had caused waves up to 4m (13 feet) high in coastal provinces, where rescue operation for those missing at sea was expected to start on Sunday when conditions allow.

In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.

BBC suggest that Yagi, although now weakened, is expected to make its way to Laos whose capital, Vientiane is 1,094.9km away from Vietnam, by Sunday evening.

Yagi had previously caused devastation in China and the Philippines, killing at least 24 in the two countries, also damaging infrastructure and unsettling the lives of thousands. 

— Additional input from Reuters