More than 1,000 homes and hundreds of hectares of rice fields and other crops were destroyed in the storm which lashed the impoverished region for three days last week.

"We have recovered nine bodies but we have not been able to find another person who we fear was killed on Friday, the final and worst day of the storm," said an official from the Son La flood and storm control committee.

The victims, who were all from the remote districts of Mai Son, Bac Yen and Song Na, were hit by falling debris or swept away in the flash floods, he said.

TERRA.WIRE