Hailstones, whirlwinds leave 1 missing, injure 3 in Vietnam

HANOI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Hailstones and whirlwinds hit Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces over the past few days, leaving one person missing and three people injured, according to the country's disaster agency on Tuesday

They also caused property losses of some 26 billion Vietnamese dong (1.1 million U.S. dollars), the National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue said.

One man went missing on Monday after heavy rain and whirlwinds damaged hundreds of houses and many other infrastructure works in Dien Bien province. Three injured people are from Bac Kan province.

In other northern provinces, whirlwinds damaged hundreds of houses, schools, and hospitals, and caused widespread blackouts, while hailstone devastated crops and killed thousands of fowls.