Five people drown in central Vietnam floods

HANOI (Reuters) - Five people drowned in floods following heavy rain in central Vietnam this week, the third time natural disaster had struck in a month, the government said, as the La Nina weather pattern develops in parts of Asia.

Four people were swept away in the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh while crossing swollen streams and another drowned in Binh Dinh while fishing at night, the government said in its disaster report on Saturday.

All the deaths took place on Thursday as rains of up to 163 mm fell in central Vietnam since Tuesday, raising river waters to dangerous levels.

A typhoon in early October and floods last week killed a combined 114 people in the central region, destroyed a rice crop and left property damage of 3 trillion dong ($186 million), a government report said on Friday.

The three-month storm season should end this month in Vietnam but meteorologists have already warned that La Nina would bring rains to Australia and Southeast Asia this year.

La Nina, or 'Little Girl' in Spanish, is an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures that occurs about every three to five years and often follows El Nino, a warming of Pacific waters.

Vietnamese meteorologists have not forecast how La Nina would affect the country in coming months but they have said that showers were expected in central and southern regions until Nov. 7, by which time the dry season should have started.